


Just Friends

by rubywallace25



Series: Messrs Padfoot and Moony Are Proud to Present a Series of Romanic Disasters [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 27,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25839853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubywallace25/pseuds/rubywallace25
Summary: After their break-up Sirius and Remus attempt to be 'just friends'.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape, Marlene McKinnon/Original Female Character(s), Mary Macdonald/Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Messrs Padfoot and Moony Are Proud to Present a Series of Romanic Disasters [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1873549
Comments: 208
Kudos: 226





	1. Fun With Mary

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third story in a series, which includes...
> 
> The Various Romantic Adventures of Messrs Padfoot and Moony.
> 
> A Song For Remus.
> 
> But you can jump in here.

Remus Lupin is currently sitting flat on his back in a field.

Remus Lupin is currently sitting flat on his back in a field with a piece of straw hanging out of the corner of his mouth, while staring up at widest, bluest sky he has ever seen in his life.

Pollen drunk bumblebees buzz mindlessly in circles, while the sun beats down upon him, tanning his skin and turning the band of freckles across his nose a good shade darker.

This is the life, the life he would choose for himself, is choosing ever became an opition.

And then seemingly from nowhere a shadow falls over Remus.

He covers his eyes as he squints up.

"Boo!"

Of all the people he would have expected to find hovering over him, Mary Macdonald is at the bottom of the list.

But nevertheless there she is, smiling away with that beautiful smile of her's.

"Mary?"

Remus pulls himself into a sitting position.

"I thought it was you, Lupin."

Mary giggles excitedly.

Mary Macdonald is in the same year at Hogwarts (5th going into the 6th), and the same house (Gryffindor), and she also happens to be the girlfriend of one of his best friends, Peter Pettigrew.

"What are you doing here?"

Remus asks full of confusion.

"I live here."

She giggles back, as she holds out a hand, which is attached to an arm, which is covered in brightly coloured bracelets.

Remus takes her hand and lets her help him to his feet.

"In this field?"

"No, silly."

Mary elbows him playfully in the ribs.

"Over there."

She points to large farm house, which shimmers in the heat haze in the distance.

That's Lightwood Farm, the farm that Remus' parents are currently renting the short term lease of their cottage from.

"Mary, why didn't you say that your parents own the farm that my Mum and Dad are renting our cottage from, when we were on the train?"

"I wasn't listening."

There's absolutely no filter with Mary.

Remus can't help but laugh.

And then he notices that Mary is still holding his hand.

"Do you want to come over and meet my family?"

She asks sweetly.

Remus would by lying if he said he wasn't intrigued to meet the people who had bred Mary Macdonald.

Still holding hands, Remus and Mary slowly make their way across the field towards the farmhouse.

Lightwood Farm is large and has a truly lived in quality that is impossible to recreate or fake, with weathered walls of grey stone and a thatched roof.

The farm yard is cluttered with chickens, rusting machinery and a large green tractor.

Mary doesn't bother to open the gate, but instead climbs over it with ease in her denim hot pants, mud splattered wellies and floral peasant top.

Remus' copies her, his height finally an advantage as he climbs over the gate with relative ease.

Once on the other side Mary drags him by the crook of his arm through the open door of the farmhouse and into a flagstoned kitchen, which has whitewashed walls and an ingleknook fireplace.

In the centre of the kitchen stands an uneven, honey coloured table, where a short, overweight, balding man sits, hunched forward, waving his wand.

Mary is a halfblood, like Remus, but unlike him, magic is obviously openly practiced in her home, unlike his own, where his Dad rarely uses his wand.

"Daddy."

Mary flings her arms around her Dad's neck, and places a kiss neatly against his cheek.

"Daddy, this is Lupin."

She waves her hand in Remus direction and at the sight of him, her Dad attempts to tuck his wand away up the sleeve of his shirt.

"Don't worry, Lupin is at Hogwarts with me."

Mr Macdonald visibly relaxes and places his wand back on the kitchen table.

"Lupin, Lupin, your parents are renting the cottage?"

"Yes, Sir."

Remus answers smartly.

Lily Evans had been right when she'd mentioned that Mary probably liked Peter because he reminded her of her Dad, since her Dad is also short, round, and has a rat like quality to him.

Remus finds it hard to believe that such a man could have produced such a beautiful daughter, and yet here they are.

"None of that Sir business, call me Donald."

Donald Macdonald and he also owns a farm.

"My parents weren't very imaginative."

Donald laughs and clasps Remus' hand in his own shaking it warmly.

"So are you the boy, is this the boy?"

He must mean Peter, Remus and Mary both shake their heads emphatically.

"No, that's Peter, this is friend."

Donald whistles through his teeth.

"It's a small world."

Remus has to agree with him.

Suddenly Mary has hold of his hand again.

"I'm taking Lupin upstairs now, is it okay if he stays for tea?"

He doesn't get a say in this invitation obviously.

"I'll give you a shout. By the way, your Grandmother has apparated somewhere inside the house and is roaming around, again."

Mary rolls her large blue eyes at this and drags Remus out of the kitchen and up a set of narrow, panelled stairs.

Once on the landing she points to a series of closed doors along the landing.

"That's Mummy and Daddy."

She points to the first door.

"That's my sister Minnie, she's starting at Hogwarts in September."

Mary points to another door, which is covered in moving pictures of fluttering butterflies.

"That's my other sister Maudie, she's only six."

Mary, Minnie and Maudie, clearly Mr and Mrs Macdonald are only slightly more imaginative than Mr Macdonald's parents.

She drags him through the last door, and Remus finds himself standing in Mary's bedroom.

He thinks of Peter and feels a pang of guilt.

Mary's bedroom is small and cluttered with dark coloured beams running across the ceiling.

In the centre of the room stands a dress maker's dummy, which has a set of golden robes pinned up against it.

It's common knowledge that Mary wants to own her own robe shop once they leave school, even Remus knows that.

The wall behind Mary's bed is plastered with moving pictures of their time at Hogwarts.

Lily, Marlene, Dorcus and Frank all wave out at him, alongside Peter and...yes, he catches sight of himself and Sirius.

He has his arm wrapped around Sirius shoulders and they look happy, they look in love, and immediately Remus wants to steal the photograph from the wall, because he wants to have some record of the fact that Sirius Black once loved him.

"Right, you sit there.'

Mary pushes him down onto the edge of her bed, and his awkwardness only increases as for the first time he notices what amazing hair she has.

It's almost as good as Sirius', but not quite, and it has the consistency of ringlets of spun gold.

He drags one of the colourful pillows that clutter her bed across his lap, and tries to pretend that he doesn't have a thing for really great hair.

"Right, what do you think of these robes?"

Mary waves her hand in the direction of the golden robes glitter on the mannequin.

He squints at them, and sees what...a set of robes?

"They're very,"

"You're gay."

Mary interrupts him suddenly.

"I know you dress a bit like Stig of the Dump, but you will be good at this, fashion."

He's not, he's not gay, he's not sure what he is, but before Sirius, he'd kissed a Ravenclaw called, Amy Floss A LOT, is that the reason that Mary has let him into her bedroom, because she thinks that he's 'safe'.

That he isn't currently concealing a massive and uncomfortable erection that has been brought on due to her hair...

Remus doesn't correct her, but simply says.

"I think, that's a stereotype."

Mary shrugs and turns attention back to the robes, and with her back facing him Remus takes the opportunity to pocket the photograph of him and Sirius.


	2. Hold On

It must be a charm.

Whatever Alecto Carrow has done to her hair, or more specifically, her Mother has done, must involve an extremely complex amount of magic, because Sirius has never seen anything defy the laws of gravity in such a way.

It's like a wave.

A greasy, mousey blonde wave, that is rising off the top of her head.

Alecto's hair is not the thing that should be concerning him, no what should be concerning him is that his parents have decided that at the ripe old age of fifteen, it's time that he should enter the 'marriage market'.

Even a disappointment like Sirius has to do his bit for the family, preferably by producing an heir, which can in turn will go on to hate him just the way he hates his own parents.

It's the circle of life.

Alecto is probably thirteen, but she looks about ten, and she's much closer in age to Regulus than him, but The Carrows although an old established Pure Blood family, are not from the top tier, they are not Malfoys, or Lestranges, not even a Crabbe, this is clearly the best that his Mother can do.

His Mother is busy displaying The Black family tree tapestry to Alecto's own Mother, talking her through each branch, and visibly tensing whenever the other woman fails to enunciate correctly.

While his Mother condescends to one guest, Sirius is seated next to the other, on a high backed sofa, which is covered in emerald green snakes that twist and twine around one another.

The sofa is just another thing that Sirius dislikes about the house in Grimmald Place, it's creepy and disgusting.

Alecto sips from her cup of tea with her little finger raised.

The collar of Sirius' robes are so tight that he feels as if he's being slowly strangled, perhaps he is.

He's almost starting to have a shred of sympathy for his poisonous cousin Bellatrix, who he'd once watched being dragged into the same room to undergo the very same ritual humiliation, which had been concluded satisfactorily with her marriage to the spineless lump Lestrange.

With the backs of their Mothers turned, Alecto leans towards Sirius, her small green eyes narrowing.

"I know exactly what you've been doing with that disgusting half blood, you are a degenerate."

Sirius assumes that the disgusting half blood in question is Remus, and he finds himself smiling in Alecto's pale and pinched face.

"Are we about to have our first disagreement, dearest?"

Sirius feels particularly bold and winks at Alecto, who wrinkles her nose in disgust.

"My Mother isn't taking this seriously,"

Sirius stifles a laugh, which earns a raised eyebrow from his Mother.

"...she just wants to see inside the precious 'House of Black', personally I think you live in a dump."

She's not wrong there.

Oh what a daughter-in-law Alecto would be, perhaps he'll marry her for her blistering social commentary.

No.

He'd rather die than marry Alecto Carrow.

Mentally he counts down another day until he sees James and Peter and Remus.

He just has to hold on.

Hold on.

Hold on, and in three weeks time he'll pack up his rucksack and run away, off to spend another summer with his friends.

Just hold on.


	3. Tied Up In Knots

Three Weeks Later.

The burning heat has managed to penetrate the frigid walls of twelve Grimmald Place, turning the air inside unnaturally humid.

The weather has been so warm that it's breaking all sorts of records.

Sirius feels stifled, and pent up, and half mad, which is normal for him, but he also feels sweaty, which isn't, especially not in the house of his parents.

He'd sleep naked if it wasn't for the fear that Kreacher might wander into his room in the middle of the night.

The idea of waking up in the middle of the night to find his Mother's creepy House Elf staring at him is enough to make him feel almost cold, almost.

Sirius unlatches his bedroom window and it runs easily in the frame.

The bedroom is flooded with a thunderous warmth for once the outside is so much worse than Number Twelve.

He slips his wand between his teeth finding the familiar grooves of older teeth marks.

And then he eases himself out of the window and onto the wrought iron balcony outside, briefly he wonders if the rusted metal will hold his weight as from somewhere invisible he feels a grinding under his boots.

There's a significant difference between jumping purposely or falling accidentally from this height.

He turns back to close the window behind him and as he does he sees the pyjama clad vision of his younger brother staring down at him.

"What are you doing?"

Regulus asks in a hash whisper.

Sirius rolls his eyes and pulls his wand from his mouth.

"I'm going for a walk."

Regulus fixes him with a contemptuous stare.

"And when are you intending on returning from this walk."

"September."

Sirius adds quickly.

It's July.

The contemptuous look on Regulus' face slips and is quickly replaced by something unreadable under the pale light of the full moon.

"Sirius, you can't just run away all the time."

Of course he can, Sirius thinks to himself.

He shrugs back a response.

"What are we doing here?"

Sirius asks, keen to shake of his brother and continue his journey.

"It's not like us to have 'brotherly' chats?"

"No, it isn't."

Regulus mutters and he almost sounds glum.

Sirius recalls suddenly how things had been before Hogwarts, before he'd been sorted in Gryffindor, and how although he'd always rebelled against their parents, he'd never disliked his younger brother, in fact they'd been almost close.

He'd enjoyed having a younger sibling to boss around and protect and boss around some more.

But his parents had got in Regulus' head and...was it to late now?

A mad idea grips Sirius suddenly.

All of his best ideas are mad.

He can just picture the look on James' face when he turns up at The Potters with Regulus in toe.

"Come with me."

He says suddenly, watching as Regulus' eyes widen in surprise.

Neither of them speak for what feels like an eternity as they each wait for the other to make the first move.

"I'll see you in September."

Regulus says finally, and Sirius feels something in his chest deflating. 

Had he been hoping that Regulus would take him up on his offer, seriously?

"Don't break your neck."

Regulus says as way of a goodbye as he slides the window shut.

Wordlessly Sirius throws his rucksack down onto the pavement, before jumping himself transforming into Padfoot as he hits the ground.

Remus has become a regular visitor at The Macdonalds, haunting Mary's bedroom and often staying for lunch and dinner.

He's lonely and Mary is good company.

He doesn't even mind that she uses him in a war against her younger sister Minnie, encouraging him to gang up on the younger girl, who has taken to following them around wherever they go.

"Minnie fancies you."

Mary had told him as they'd wandered across yet another sun parched field.

"She likes the drippy sort."

He was drippy, and this from the girl who willingly snogged Peter on a regular basis?

Although Mary is good company, Remus misses The Maurders.

It's not the same without them, the summers never are, but at least this summer will be different, since for a whole week James and Peter and Sirius will be staying with him.

Sirius.

Remus has tried not to think about Sirius, and every day he has failed.

He wonders what it will be like to see him again?

Not awkward he hopes, since he couldn't face another one of James' panic attacks.

This has to work, he's sure that they can do it, that they can go back to being just friends, after all they'd been 'just friends' for four whole years before all of the kissing and the feelings had gotten the better of them.

He's still in love with Sirius though, that is a problem.

Remus wonders if Minnie will fancy Sirius as well, probably not, since Sirius is the least 'drippy' person that he has ever met.

Although there had been this one time when...

No.

Stop it.

Just friends.

You have to be just friends, a small voice in the back of his head reminds him.

Just friends.


	4. Emma Bovary

Sirius strides into The Potters' kitchen as if it's no big deal, as if he hasn't hitchicked like a Muggle half way across the country, because he can't stand the Knight bus.

He's covered in dusty mud on account of having to Padfoot it the last couple of miles, due to the weird vibes a lorry driver had been giving him.

He'd had to carry his rucksack in his mouth, and his jaw still aches.

"Sirius!"

Euphemia Potter exclaims at the sight of him.

"Effie, my duck."

He winks at James, who has a slice of toast hanging out of his mouth, and is sitting at the table in his blue and white striped pyjamas, with his hair practically standing on end.

Effie makes a delighted and indulgent noise from the back of her throat as she ushers Sirius into a vacant chair.

"Looks like you bought half the county in with you on your boots."

Fleamont Potter observes with a smile, and with a wave of his wand he cleans up the mess that Sirius has brought in his wake.

"We weren't expecting you for another couple of days, dear."

Effie says as she slides a plate with a couple of rashers of bacon and some bread under his nose.

After the kitchens at Hogwarts, Effie Potter has the best cooking that Sirius has ever tasted and he falls upon the food as if Padfoot is controlling the human part of his brain.

He must look disgusting, James looks disgusted at him, but Fleamont and Effie have fixed him with warm smiles.

The Potters are old, and not just by Wizarding standards, but Muggles as well, they are so old in fact that they look more like James' Grandparents, than his Mum and Dad.

Sirius clears his plate in a matter of moments and wipes the grease of his mouth against the back of his hand.

"You are vile."

James tells him from across the table, and Sirius simply grins back at him.

Fleamont ignores his son's comment and unfolds his copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Anymore for anymore?"

Effie asks.

"No thanks Mum, I'm going to take Sirius upstairs."

Although Sirius would actually have quite liked a bit more breakfast he finds himself being hauled up from the table and dragged along by his elbow out of the kitchen and into an oak panelled hallway, which is lined with the portraits of a dozen or so generations of Potters.

They've got a similar sort of thing at Number Twelve, but unlike The Blacks, his own flesh and blood, The Potters all look happy to see him, with one or two managing a wave as he passes by.

"What are you doing here, I thought we agreed that you'd come on Wednesday?"

James asks, as they begin to climb a grand wooden staircase, which is decorated with medieval maidens and dragon slaying knights.

They don't have anything like that at Grimmald Place, the ascetic of which is 'if it's not snakes then it's not part of the decor'.

Although a dragon is a bit like a snake, he supposes.

No sooner has he thought this than he can hear Remus' exasperated tone in the back of his head lecturing him on how dragons are nothing like snakes.

Yes, teacher.

"I think it was the weather."

Sirius admits with a frown, as he drags his thoughts away from Remus.

James laughs at this.

And then he brings up the thing that Sirius has resolutely been not trying to think about all night.

"How do you think Moony got on last night?"

He dreads to think, but shrugs again instead, because he doesn't know what to say.

James must read something into this silence because he quickly changes the subject.

"Wormtail sent me an owl."

This is a surprise, because Peter never writes to any of them, he just expects letters from them.

"He's not ill is he? I told him to stop eating things he finds on the floor."

They pause at the threshold over James' bedroom, which is three times the size of Sirius' own.

James shakes his head excitedly.

"Moony is staying with Mary."

No out of all the things he could have guessed, that particular one is firmly at the bottom of his list.

"What Peter's Mary?"

They always refer to Mary Macdonald as 'Peter's Mary', despite how sexist this may seem.

No, actually is, they are a sexist bunch of wallys.

Excluding Remus, who is not a sexist pig.

"And I was thinking,"

Sirius catches sight of the manic gleam in James' hazel eyes, and braces himself for what is to come.

"...we should encourage Mary to invite the girls over as well. Evans and Marlene and Dorcus and Evans."

James adds Lily's name to the list twice.

Encourage also means make in the world of James Potter.

It sounds like a terrible idea.

"Does Marlene have to come, only you know how much I hate her?"

"I'm afraid so. Evans and Marlene are a package deal, like you and me. Evans won't come without her best friend, and do you really want to spend a week cooped up with only Mary and Dorcus?"

To be honest Sirius hoped that the week would have been spent with only The Maurders, with occasional interruptions from Remus' parents to feed and water them.

"Let's owl Mary now."

James says with a look of manic glee etched across his face.

While Sirius decides that the best thing is just to let James get on with it as there's no reasoning with him when he's in this state.

Remus is roughly awoken from his stupor by a loud bang on his bedroom door.

Snorting himself suddenly awake he finds Mary and his befuddled looking Mum standing in his bedroom.

Mary is clutching a roll of parchment in one hand and a fluffy white kitten in the other.

"I, I, Mary, I'm not well."

Remus stutters as he drags his bed sheet up over his pyjamas.

It's been two days since the full moon and he hasn't really been able to leave his bed.

Everything, EVERYTHING, hurts.

"Your Mum said you fell down the stairs, that's not an illness is it? Or do you have vertigo? My Great Aunt had vertigo and she died after being bitten by a spider."

It's lucky that Mary appears to live in a bubble of her own making, since they have definitely used that excuse before.

"I couldn't stop her, cariad."

His stomach twists at the apologetic look on his Mum's care worn face.

"It's alright Mum, I'm sorry."

Remus says weakly as he drags his battered body up the bed into a sitting position with his back against the white washed wall.

He winces as he moves and he tries to ignore the pained expression that his Mum wears on her face.

"I'll bring you up some tea."

"No sugar in mine this time Mrs Lupin, I'm sweet enough."

Mary beams.

Once Remus' Mum is out of the room Mary flips down onto the edge of the bed.

"Madam Bovary was missing you."

She says as she deposits the kitten on his chest.

"Hello, Emma."

Remus coos over the fluffy ball of fur.

The farm cat had given birth to a litter of four kittens, and Mary's parents had allowed Remus to keep a kitten for himself.

He's never had a pet before, not even a hamster, and now he owns a cat, well an almost cat.

He wonders what Sirius and Peter will make of this new addition to their dormitory?

"Have you changed her name? Because it's a bit odd naming her after a person."

Remus openly stares at the girl seated on his bed.

"No I..."

But he gives up and shakes his head instead, and although she looks confused for a moment, Mary quickly moves on, waving the piece of parchment under his nose.

"Guess who is coming to stay?"

She says this as if he is staying with her, although in a way he supposes that he is.

He opens his mouth, but doesn't have the chance to speak as Mary continues excitedly.

"The girls! Lily, Marlene and Dorcus, and I think Marly is bringing that Hufflepuff Clemency."

"I thought they broke up?"

Mary shrugs, clearly she either doesn't know or care.

Ordinarily the idea of spending any extended time with Dorcus Meadowes fills Remus with dread, but she'll be a perfect, noisy, obnoxious buffer between him and Sirius.

"That's wonderful!"

He says in a sickly enthusiastic tone that doesn't sound like him at all.


	5. The Knight Bus

Sirius hates The Knight Bus and on the handful of occasions that he's travelled upon the accursed vehicle he's been violently sick.

He'd practically begged James to travel to Mary's through the medium of floo powder, but James that ultimate betrayer, had merely pointed out that as Muggleborns Lily and Dorcus were not connected to the network.

"So let THEM get the bloody bus."

Sirius had complained bitterly.

He is now sat on said bus clutching his rucksack for dear life against his chest as he is sent spinning around the interior, while James laughs like a loon.

This is just the sort of thing that he knows that Sirius Black should enjoy, but he doesn't.

They pull up outside a block of Muggle flats where Peter lives with his Mum.

Sirius has stayed with Peter a handful of times over the course of various Summer holidays, and although the flat is horribly cramped, he likes his Mum, who is always ready to produce a tray of snacks at the slightest inclination that either of them is hungry.

Peter's Mum is a Witch and she works as a barmaid at The Leaky Cauldron, and Sirius doesn't believe for one moment that she has ever been a 'Mrs'.

Red faced and breathless Peter appears on the bus and finds a plush velvet chair next to James.

"Alright, Wormtail!"

James exclaims happily at the sight of their friend, who produces a batch of Cauldron Cakes from his backpack.

"My Mum made these for the journey."

"Excellent! I love your Mum's cooking."

James grins as he takes one of the cakes and bites a chunk out of it.

Peter waves the tin of cakes under Sirius nose, who immediately feels three shades greener.

He shakes his head weakly.

The bus starts back into life with a jolt, which sends James and Peter spinning off in the opposite direction.

Sirius Black will not throw-up, he tells himself firmly.

The next stop is Marlene McKinnon, who joins the bus with her soon to be 7th year, Hufflepuff, girlfriend, Clemency Wong.

Sirius takes the opportunity to get a good look at Marlene's house, which is an extremely large, buttery coloured old farmhouse, set in a good couple of archers.

Of course it is, everyone knows that Marlene's parents are grubby social climbers.

Oh Merlin, he sounds like is Mother!

He must never ever allow himself to think that way again.

"Good of you to join us McKinnon."

James says, as if he actually owns the bus.

"Cauldron cake?"

Peter offers the girls, who have found a loveseat to settle themselves into.

Both Marlene and Clemency take a cake each.

He'd been under the impression that they'd broken up, but no, here Marlene is giving him another reason to hate her, because she's managed to keep her relationship together, while his has fallen miserably apart.

He tries not to think of the awkwardness that is to come, this will be the first time that he will have seen Remus in over a month, and their reunion will in front of a packed audience of their friends.

He continues to openly stare at Marlene and Clemency who giggle while they eat their cakes, and nausea aside, what he feels is jealousy, he's jealous to see them so happy.

Sirius is desperate to kiss Remus again, he's been desperate since March, but...but...but...it's not up to him.

Remus made his choice, and he doesn't want to be stupid boyfriends anymore, because Sirius is to 'difficult'.

Remus hadn't actually put it that bluntly, but Sirius knows that he is the reason why they can't be together anymore.

It's not fun.

It's not healthy.

But the truth is Sirius had found their fledgling attempt at a relationship both fun and healthy.

Still you can't force someone to love you, well you technically can, but even Sirius isn't that mental.

He's been so distracted with thoughts of Remus that they reach their final destination before he's registered that they've been moving.

This time the bus stops outside a smart, red brick end terrace house, the home of Lily Evans.

Lily and Dorcus quickly join them on the top desk completing the party.

They help themselves to Peter's Cauldron Cakes.

The bus lurches back into life before Lily has managed to find asleep, and as fate would have it she ends up falling onto James lap.

"I always knew that you'd fall for me Evans."

James says with a delighted expression on his face.

"Get off me you absolute creep!"

Lily shrieks as she struggles to untangle herself from James.

"Oh come now Evans, you are the one that's sitting on top of me."

Sirius rolls his eyes at this, while Peter, Dorcus and Clemency all titter, and Marlene looks daggers at James.

It's a whole other hour until the bus finally stops outside The Macdonald Family farm, which unlike Marlene's home, appears to be an actual working farm with chickens and sheds and mud.

Sirius hopes that's mud.

One by one they file off the bus, and Sirius has to practically lean on Peter to keep himself up right as he wobbles down the stairs from the top deck.

Once off the bus Sirius takes a lung full of air, which does nothing to settle his stomach.

"Mary!"

Dorcus shrieks at the top of her lungs.

"Dorc, can you knock that off."

Marlene says darkly, as she slings the straps of her backpack onto her narrow shoulders.

Dorcus' face immediately falls.

"That's right, you sound just like Frank."

Until recently Frank Longbottom and Dorcus Meadowes had been a horribly happy couple, that was until Frank had gone and dumped her for a Ravenclaw called Amy Floss.

Amy Floss, who Remus, Sirius notes darkly, had spent most of the 4th year snogging the face off.

Dorcus' lip wobbles and the she bursts into a flood of noisy tears.

James and Peter back away from the crying girl, while Lily rushes in to comfort her friend.

"There, there Dorcus."

Lily says, although it's clear to anyone that she has had about enough of Dorcus' histrionics.

"Well done Marlene, insensitive as ever."

James chuckles.

Just this once Sirius finds himself reluctantly siding with Marlene, who'd simply made the mistake of putting into words what they had all been thinking.

"Oh why don't you just fu..."

But before this has a chance to develop any further Marlene is interrupted.

"Pete!"

Mary appears looking even more tanned, golden and gorgeous than ever as she rushes out of the farm yard and excitedly greets Peter.

No one has ever been that pleased to see Sirius, well maybe James, but Remus has never been that enthusiastic, he's lucky if he get's a head nod from Moony.

'Pete' and Mary are snogging, which appears to put everyone off, and makes Sirius feel truly unwell.

And then Remus appears and something odd happens in Sirius' chest.

Remus has a tan and all his freckles are showing.

Remus has a tan and all his freckles are showing and to finish off the image he is clutching a fluffy white kitten.

Remus is holding a kitten.

Sirius throws-up.

So perhaps that feeling wasn't in his chest, but his stomach instead.


	6. 1984

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever."

Remus sighs heavily as he rests his well thumbed copy of George Orwell's 1984, down across his chest.

He tries very hard never to think about the war, the one they never talk about at school, the one that they all know is raging outside the walls of Hogwarts, but is somehow ignored in favour of exams and Quidditch and just being teenagers.

In two years though he'll graduate and then what?

It's hard to imagine his life beyond the safety and acceptance of Hogwarts.

Will he ever get a job, and if he does how long will he keep it?

James and Sirius are so fixed on the idea of having glittering careers as Aurors, but he's never had such focus, because really whats the point...

Remus stares at the cover of the book and tries to imagine what his life will be like in the year 1984, when he'll be the ripe old age of twenty-four.

Will he still be friends with the other Maurders or will they all have gone their seperate ways?

He thinks, whatever happens, that he'll probably keep in touch with Wormtail, since like himself, Peter doesn't seem destined for a career that is particularly note worthy or special.

But perhaps Remus is wrong and Peter will surprise them all by doing something spectacular.

The other day he found a cluster of grey hair nestled amongst his own brand of sandy blonde, and his wonders if he'll be completely grey by 1984.

Or perhaps he'll sign up to fight in the war, he has heard whispers around the castle that Amelia Bones' older brother is heavily involved in some secret anti-Voldemort order.

Or maybe he'll just be dead.

"Let's make a note to leave the dystopian fiction for something more appropriate, like Christmas."

Remus tells the fluffy white kitten Madam Emma Bovary, who simply mews back a response as she claws over his rumbled bed covers.

He closes the book as rests it against the table next to his bed, where he also catches sight of his alarm clock.

It's ten o'clock in the morning and Sirius will be...

No, he tries that sentence again.

It's ten o'clock in the morning and The Maurders will be on The Knight Bus and making their way to The Macdonald farm.

He's got one hour to stop feeling sick with nerves at the prospect of seeing Sirius again.

After all, he reminds himself cheerfully, they'd been broken up since March and they'd still managed to be friends the rest of the term.

Remus has started to feel better at the prospect of seeing his friends again, as if being in close proximity to James, Sirius and Peter improves his health.

Madam Bovary mews loudly as Remus carefully lifts her off the bed and up into his arms cradling her against his chest.

As he makes his way out of the bedroom he catches sight of himself in a nearby mirror and studies his reflection.

Despite his tan he still looks pasty, and there's a fresh scar on his neck, and he wonders what Sirius will think of his appearance, but he should stop thinking that way, since in the end it doesn't matter, it can't matter.

Holding Madam Bovary in his arms Remus leaves the room and makes his way down the cramped and narrow staircase.

However halfway down the stairs he catches the sound of his parents voice floating up from the open kitchen door.

"We can't possibly stay here."

He hears his Dad say in his perpetually harassed tone of voice.

"Oh Lyall, do you really think so? But we got away with it the other night."

His Mum replies.

"I had no idea that they were a wizarding family when I took the lease."

Dad is not listening, and sounds distracted.

"And with all those children coming here."

"They are hardly children."

Mum counters.

"Well, none of them are of age. And two of them are Purebloods, a Potter and a Black. A Black in our house!"

Dad snaps back.

Remus is hardly breathing as he strains to listen to the rest.

He feels the gentle rise and fall of Madam Bovary's chest.

"I trust our son's judgement in people. If they are his friends then they are more than welcome in my home."

Mum had an affair, he's not supposed to know this nugget of Lupin family information, but of course he does.

Remus had overheard his Dad using it against his Mum during a heated argument one night.

What Dad doesn't know is that Mum had packed both their bags (Remus' included) and had been intending to run away when she suddenly changed her mind.

That was because of him, because there could be never been a normal Muggle life if your son is a werewolf.

So, he knows that Mum and Dad only stay together for him.

There's movement in the kitchen and Remus quickly hurries out of the open front door before either of his parents see him loitering.

Outside the sunshine is glorious.

"Hello, Lupin."

Mary greets him with her usual excitable grin as he makes his way into the farm yard with Madam Bovary still in his arms.

It is now only a short walk from his door to Mary's since she showed him a short cut across the fields.

She falls upon the kitten with an adoring coo, and her golden head is so close to his own that he can smell the tang of her perfume.

The youngest member of The Macdonald tribe, Maudie, skips around the clutching a raggy witch doll in her hands.

The peaceful atmosphere is shattered by a sudden and familiar shout, Dorcus Meadowes is unmistakably in the building or farmyard in this case.

Remus braces himself and follows as little behind Mary as she rushes towards their friends.

"That's Harry Potter."

He hears Maudie say, as the little girl points towards James.

"No, it's..."

But he doesn't bother to correct her because Sirius is there.

Sirius is there looking beautiful and being sick all over his boots.

Remus' heart gives an odd lurch.


	7. Unicorns, Unicorns, Unicorns

Everything else just fades a little into the background as Remus watches Sirius try to recover after decorating his boots with his own vomit.

He looks pale and greenish and sweaty, and Remus has to fight back his first instinct, which is just to rush over and accidentally stand in Sirius' sick.

Clemency Wong, the girl that none of them really know, excluding Marlene, produces her wand, and cleans up after Sirius.

"Cheers."

Sirius grins back at her.

He's thinner, Sirius has lost weight, a lot of weight since the Hogwarts Express, and this causes Remus to worry that he's been ill.

He's also been at The Potters, Remus knows this because he's wearing the battered, black leather jacket that he hides at James house.

Sirius' hair is still brilliant though, and his face, of course, and...

"Whose this then? Replaced us already?"

James's question stops Remus' train of thought midway, and it takes his a moment to realise that he's pointing at the kitten.

"Yes, you're all been replaced. Especially you Prongs."

He manages a teasing smile.

Peter and the girls moves past them as Mary leads them all into the farmhouse, so that the only people in the yard are James, Sirius and of course Remus.

"Can I have a hold?"

James asks in a soft sounding voice.

It's a pity that Lily never gets to see this side of him, the caring and considerate version that Remus knows so well, and instead James always has to make himself look such a prat in front of her.

"This is Madam Emma Bovary, and she better like you since she'll be moving into Gryffindor tower come September."

Remus says as he carefully hands Madam Bovary over to James, who flips backwards in his arms and leaves the impression that Prongs is cradling a baby.

"What sort of name is that?"

Remus is just at the point of explaining when he's interrupted.

"It's a character from a book"

Sirius says, and this revelation causes Remus to do a double take, since other that Quidditch Through The Ages and the odd transfiguration text book, he's never seen him pick up a book and read for something as simple as pleasure.

Sirius clearly noticed the look of surprise on Remus' face as he quickly counters.

"What, I can read."

"No I,"

Remus starts but then stops as he feels the weight of James' gaze pressing down upon him, and he replays the horrible moment when he'd seen his friend doubles over in the middle of Hogsmeade unable to breathe, and it had been all his fault, all Sirius' fault and that stupid argument.

That argument, where they had said everything and nothing that had mattered.

His chest tightens at the memory.

The colour of blood, that scarlet hue, which had dripped from Sirius' broken nose.

How pale his skin had appeared in contrast to the blood, how he had practically glowed.

He's almost glowing now, how does he do that?

"Are you lot coming in for some in for some lunch?"

Lily's appearance startles Remus from his train of thought.

He notices the way Lily's green eyes shift from the sight of Madam Bovary to James, and the little frown that forms above the bridge of her nose.

She flounces back into the farm house with James and Sirius following her quickly inside.

Remus pauses as he watches Sirius disappear though the door, so it is true, what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder.

Mary Macdonald's parents are like every caricature of a farmer and his wife that Sirius has ever seen, even down to copious amounts of tweed.

Her Father is short and stout, while her Mother is tall and haughty looking, but the pair radiate a warmth, which appears to be the only thing that Mary and her sisters have inherited from their parents.

There must be some dynamite in their genes, which mean that The Macdonald's have the ability to produce such beautiful daughters.

They're seated around a large kitchen table, which is groaning under the weight of the spread that Mrs Macdonald has put on for them.

Cheese sandwiches, ham on the bone, bread and butter, with a large Victoria sponge cake taking centre stage.

They're sitting in their correct order James and him and somehow Remus is sitting next to him, and then Peter.

All the blood is rushing to his face simply because he can feel the pressure of Remus leg against his own.

Can Remus feel him, does he know that they are touching?

They are touching, a thrill of electricity traces it's way down Sirius spine causing his palms to become slicked with sweat.

He wants to...he's not sure what he wants to do, but Sirius never wants to stop touching Remus.

Never, never, never.

Feeling bold Sirius presses back against Remus' leg.

"What sort of farm is this, Mr Macdonald?"

He half hears Marlene ask, watching as she pours herself a glass of lemonade from a large jug.

"Donald, please, and that's a good question, it's a unicorn farm."

Nonsense Sirius thinks to himself, unicorns are wild, rare and wild, and not commercially farmed, but this thought slips from his mind as he feels Remus returning the pressure against his leg.

He's pressing back.

Sirius feels as if his heart is about to explode from his chest.

"Really, I've heard about this."

Clemency says excitedly.

"Clem here, wants to be a magizologist."

Marlene tells the assembled group with a wide smile, while Clemency beams happily back at her.

Ordinarily seeing Marlene happy would make him feel automatically nauseous, but not now, now all he feels is unbelievable happy, because Remus is touching him.

"If only our Mary had some of that ambition."

Donald chortles, which earns a cuff in the back of the head from his wife.

Sirius steals a glance at Mary, who despite the sea of laughter around her appears embarrassed, and he knows acutely how it feels to be ridiculed in ones own home.

"How many of you have got unicorn tail hairs in your wands?"

Donald asks.

While Sirius hums happily in his own skin for the first time in months, and tries to hide his smile behind his glass of lemonade.

As if remembering himself suddenly Remus shifts his weight away from Sirius, who instantly mourns the loss.

He watches listlessly as Lily, Remus, Mary and Clemency all lift up their hands with nervous looks on their faces, but he keeps his own hand firmly down despite the fact that his own wand has a unicorn tail hair at it's core.

Yet another way that Sirius Black has distinguished himself from the rest of his bloody family, who are all dragonheart strings.

"Rest of you are dragons I suppose?"

James fixes him with a toothy grin and Sirius smiles back, because even his best friend doesn't know the core of his wand.

"I'm a phoenix."

Dorcus pipes up proudly, as she holds up her wand.

"Well, there's always one."

Donald counters with a hearty chuckle.

"There's a good chance that some of your cores may come from one of our unicorns, although we do most of our trade with Gregorovitch."

Sirius considers trying to catch Remus eye, but he gives up, it was probably all in his imagination anyway.

He digs his fork deep into his slice of cake.


	8. The Future?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is from Mary's POV as I wanted to give the girls voices of their own.  
> Also trigger warning for physical assaults, please skip chapter.

After lunch Mary decides to take Lily, Marlene and Dorcus on a tour of her family home, while her younger sisters Minnie and Maudie, show the boys and Clemency around the garden.

For some reason Maudie, who has never been particularly good with strangers, won't leave James Potter alone and insists on calling him Harry.

The odd thing is that Mary is pretty certain that her little sister doesn't know anyone called Harry, none of them do.

Anyway, six year olds are weird.

"Who wants to bunk in with me?"

Mary asks as they reach her bedroom.

Although she's use to sharing a room with Lily, Marlene and Dorcus, she considers Dorcus to be her best friend, and would much rather share a bed with her, than say Marlene.

Dorcus instantly waves her hand.

"Excellent."

She beams.

"You three can sleep in the attic, there's lots of space and hardly and spiders, although Granny does sometimes apparate up there."

Lily and Marlene exchange a look.

"I'm sure it will be fine."

Lily says, without a hint of confidence in her voice.

Having successfully shaken off the boys and with her three friends safely ensconced in her bedroom, Mary crossed the small room and closes the door.

She worries away at the flesh on her bottom lip before she turns to face the others.

And then she just does it, turns and faces them.

"I'm glad, I've got you all on your own, because there's something important that I wanted to tell you all."

"You're not pregnant are you?"

Marlene asks.

Mary instantly splutters at this horrified that Marlene would even suggest such a thing, her face turning hot and red.

"No."

She says firmly.

"No, I'm not..."

She can't even bring herself to say the word out loud, so she settles for a hand gesture, which earns a giggle from Dorcus.

Truth be told Mary is definitely not ready to do anything other than a lot of kissing with Peter.

"What is it that you want to tell us, Mary?"

Lily asks, as she settles herself down on the edge of Mary's bed, with her pink backpack resting neatly across her lap.

Mary steals herself.

"Don't leave us in suspense."

Dorcus pleads, as she rests on her knees in the middle of the bed.

"This is going to be my last summer at Hogwarts."

She announces, and is surprised that his nugget of information doesn't garner more interest from the other girls.

And to her annoyance she notices yet another look passing between Lily and Marlene.

Marlene is the one to speak.

"Mary, we're only going in to our 6th year now, we still have another two years left."

Everyone always assumes that because she's pretty, she must be dim, but contrary to popular opinion she can actually count.

"I am aware of that Marlene. But I spoke to Professor Mcgonnigal and she has agreed that if I want to leave Hogwarts before sitting my N.E.W.Ts then I can. I'm not very academic, I'm never going to be an Auror,"

She points at Marlene.

", or a healer,"

She points at Lily.

", or work for the Daily Prophet."

Her finger rest on Dorcus.

"I've also been in touch with Madam Markin, and she said that as long as I have an Exceeds Expectations in my O.W.L.s for charms, then she will take me on as a apprentice next year. What do you think?"

Mary doesn't hold out much hope of doing any better than a single Exceeds Expectations, and it had appeared as she'd sat in Professor Mcgonnigal's office that, that had been about all that she thought she was capable of as well.

It still surprises Mary that she should have been sorted into Gryffindor, when she lacks most of the neseccary qualities of her house.

"Is this because of that bastard Mulciber?"

Marlene demands.

"Because you don't need to be afraid of him, we will protect you."

But Mary's not listening, instead she's lying on the floor of the owlery, as Mulciber's hot breath comes out in ragged puffs across her face.

He'd licked her cheek, and from somewhere she'd heard Barty Crouch Junior familiar laugh.

If it hadn't been for the intervention of another Slytherin, Narcissa Black, Sirius' cousin, she wasn't sure how far the two boys would have gone.

Mary had been lying on the hard stone floor and sobbing, while she'd listened to Narcissa, who in her haughty tone had sounded like a female Sirius, had told Mulciber and Crouch that..."Mary Macdonald isn't worth being expelled."

It was true, Mary agreed with her.

Mulciber and Crouch had been escorted out of the owlery by Narcissa, and then Mary had been alone.

She'd been alone and no-one, not Peter or Marlene or Dorcus or Lily had been there to protect her.

"No, it's got nothing to do with that."

Mary says as she tries to keep her voice firm.

"It's an awfully big decision, and if you change your mind later on you won't be able to sit your exams again."

Lily points out in a measured voice.

Mary however has heard all this before from her parents, who have talked of little else since she'd shared her plans with them.

She'll be the first member on either side of her family not to sit their N.E.W.T.s.

Marlene seems cross, Lily seems concerned, and Dorcus, well she is yet to say anything. 

"I'm not going to be talked out of this."

Mary tells them all finally.

There's a pause, a horribly long pause and then...

"Can I have a discount on robes, when you start your job?"

Dorcus enquires with a smile.


	9. Wedding Bells

"Oh Merlin I swear that Mary's little sister is mental."

James says.

He's wearing an extremely relieved look on his face, which cause Sirius to throw back his head and bark with laughter.

"Ssush, shut up you prat she'll hear you."

James pleads glancing over his shoulder nervously.

They've managed to slip away from the group, and are currently concealed behind a tree.

Sirius tries to keep a straight, but fails utterly, and he collapses into a fit of laughter again.

Almost out of spite James says.

"Laugh it up chuckles, what about you and Moony?"

The smile dies of Sirius' face.

Both boys frown, and after a beat he says.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

James blinks from behind his glasses. 

"I didn't,"

"It's nothing."

They both say at the same time.

Sirius stares at his boots, which still have of trace of vomit upon them, clearly Clemency's cleaning charm has missed a spot.

Oh to be 17 and able to perform magic outside of school.

"I saw the way you were looking at each other I thought you were going to start snogging right there. Pads your mouth was hanging open."

Sirius feels his cheeks flush with heat.

That wasn't true, and even if it was then, then, then...

"Moony doesn't,"

"Moony bloody does."

James interrupts him.

Sirius' head snaps up from his boots and he finds himself staring at his best friend, whose face has gone all soft and supportive.

"Take it from someone who knows the signs."

Sirius can't help but chortle at this, because out of everyone on the planet, James is the last person capable of 'knowing the signs'.

"Are you joking?"

"Exactly, I've been hexed by Evans so many bloody times, that I know when someone is interested."

That doesn't make any sense, but he doesn't bring this up, he just let's him carry on, because more than anything he wants James to be right about Remus.

"Moony, still likes you trust me, mate."

Sirius thinks back to the kitchen and the pleasurable weight of Remus' leg against his own.

"I love him."

Sirius admits outloud for the first time to anyone other than Remus.

James' hazel eyes widen.

"That's,"

He braces himself internally for the rest of his friend's reaction.

"...brilliant!"

James exclaims.

"I'm really happy for you mate."

He continues enthusiastically.

The way James makes it sound is as if all Sirius has to do is tell Remus that he is in love with him and that Remus will just swoon right back into his arms, but he's pretty certain that Moony doesn't swoon, and that they already know that they are in love with each other, so nothing has really changed.

"What about you?"

He asks James tentatively.

"Me?"

"How would you feel if we did get back together, I mean we had one argument and you almost stopped breathing, so?"

James' face turns five different shades of red.

"That won't ever happen again!"

He says quickly.

"I was just, I was worried that I'd have to choose between one of you if you, you know broke up, but now I know that I won't have to I'm, I'm alright."

James says with a too tight smile, that causes Sirius to wonder if his best friend is 'alright'.

"Just as a matter of interest, who would you have picked?"

Sirius asks with a mischievous grin.

James looks sheepish.

"You."

Sirius' smile turns genuine.

"But, I would have tried to see Moony and Wormtail behind your back."

"James Potter the cheat."

He's laughing again, and this reminds him of something else.

"I've got something that I've been dying to show you."

Sirius says, as he thrusts his arm deep inside his rucksack and produces his betrothal portrait.

He thrusts the photograph into James' outstretched hands and watches the look on his best friend's face change from confusion to horror as he realises exactly what he's looking at.

"What do you think of the future Mrs Black, wonderful isn't she?"

Sirius asks, as he stares at the version of himself that is upside down and seated next to a barely blinking Alecto Carrow.

"You can't, The Carrows are Death Eaters."

"My parents only know Death Eaters."

He shrugs.

And then he feels as if he suddenly needs to reassure James, who is looking at him as if he's just arrived from another planet.

"I'm not going to get married, mate, and especially not to Alecto Carrow."

"Whose getting married?"

Remus Lupin has the worst timing of anyone ever, and that is a fact that Sirius will never retract.

Peter pops up at Remus' elbow, and they're both holding glasses of cloudy lemonade.

Sirius answers without thinking.

"I am."

The glass clutched tightly in Remus' hand suddenly shatters.


	10. The Crossed Line

Remus' hand is bleeding, and he's certain that there's a slither of glass stuck deep within his palm, but he balls up his fist and bites back the pain.

He pretends, he's good at pretending.

He feels the colour drain from his face as James and Sirius swim before him.

"Bloody hell."

He hears Peter say at the sight of the broken glass, which litters the grass.

"Strong grip that you've got there, Moony."

James does what he always does and tries to pass everything off with a laugh.

Peter snickers, always quick to join in with a joke, but Sirius' face is pale, paler than normal, and he's wearing the same expression he always does when he's been caught by Professor Mcgonnigal or one of the other teachers doing something, which he shouldn't.

Remus' eyes drop to the photograph in James' hands, but he quickly hands it back to Sirius, who just stands there holding it.

From between Sirius' fingers Remus thinks he sees the image of a girl blinking and he wonders who she is.

"Moony, it was a joke, since when have I ever done what my parents wanted."

Sirius says in a hurry as he tucks the photograph back into his rucksack.

"Wormy, help me dispose of the evidence."

James pipes up.

"Wormtail!"

He exclaims, as Peter is too busy glancing between Sirius and Remus to hear him the first time.

Remus feels a warm scarlet trail running through his fingers as he watches Peter hurry to stand next to James, the pair kicking the glass into a nearby flower boarder.

"Moony, don't be a git."

Sirius is the one about to get married yet he's the git, he's the git for caring, for feeling utterly and horribly heartbroken because they'll never be able to have a photograph like that, not that he wants one, and...and...and...Sirius and James had been laughing, they were laughing.

"Oh not this again."

Peter moans.

"I want to make a good impression with Mary's parents."

He continues.

"Shut up Peter!"

Sirius snaps.

And then he does the unthinkable and keeps going, because Sirius is always at his cruellest when he feels guilty or hard done by, and Peter is his usual target.

"Don't waste your time, even you're not that good at the Imperious Curse."

Three sets of eyes widen, while one set narrows.

"Padfoot, that's a little harsh."

James' voice breaks the tension.

And then Peter takes them all by surprise by laughing, but to Remus it all feels hollow somehow and as if Sirius has just crossed some invisible line.

"I'll get you back for that one day, Padfoot."

Peter exclaims mid chuckle.

A smile slips over Sirius' features, and he puffs out a huff of relief.

"I'm thirsty, let's get a drink."

Sirius slaps Peter happily on the shoulder and the pair of them make their way towards the farm house.

As he watches them, the tall thin boy and the short fat one, Remus is struck by a horrible feeling of foreboding, as if he's seen this particular piece of film play before and...

"You know Pads doesn't mean half the rubbish he says, right?"

James breaks his concentration, and the feeling fades as he watches his friend ruffle up the back of his messy hair.

"I think I cut my hand."

Remus admits holding up his hand.


	11. Rock, Parchment, Wand

Lily stares out of the window and in the gathering gloom she can see four torch beams leading away from the house.

She can also hear singing, the four of them are singing 'The River Troll's Lament'.

James Potter has a surprisingly nice voice, it's a surprising fact because there's absolutely nothing else that is nice about him.

Lily draws the floral curtains and turns her back on the window, as James' singing fades into the background.

Mary has under sold the attic, which is three times the size of Lily's bedroom at home.

Heavy weather worn beams run the length of the ceiling and are covered in Muggle fairy lights.

Three camp beds stand against each wall, and Lily has selected the one under the window for herself.

Mary's ginger kitten Buttons, is currently stalking across her duvet.

"What's this symbol?"

Marlene asks, as she stands in the middle of her bed with her fingers pressed against a carving in one of the beams.

Dorcus immediately drops the cushion she is holding and excitedly runs across the room joining Marlene on the bed to stare at the mysterious mark.

"Oh my God Dorc, why don't you just push me off the bed!"

Marlene laughs.

But Dorcus ignores her as she says.

"I think it's a Witch's Mark, Muggles used to carve them in beams like this to ward off, well witches."

"That worked out well for them."

Marlene muses with a grin.

"Mary, did Muggles ever live in your house?"

Dorcus asks.

Mary pauses to think about this for a moment.

"This house has been in my Mum's family, The Lightwoods, for over three hundred years, long before we had magic, so I suppose."

Mary stifles a yawn, while Lily tries to wrap her head around the idea of having three hundred years of family history.

"Lightwoods, aren't they related to the Trelawneys? Wasn't there a famous seerer called Agatha Lightwood?"

Dorcus enquires.

She's the only person who is ever interested in Professor Binns mindnumbing lectures on The History of Magic, and she would probably be his favourite student if he realised he in fact had students.

"That's Granny, she use to be very good until she lost her marbles,"

Mary yawns, and then continues.

"Sybill Trelawney is my cousin, only she's not welcome in the house anymore on account of what she said."

"What did she say?"

Dorcus asks eagerly, if there's one thing she likes more than Charms and History of Magic then it's gossip.

Dorcus Meadowes is a fiend for gossip.

"Sybill Trelawney is your cousin?"

Clemency pipes up from her bed, suddenly interested in the conversation.

Lily watches as Mary glances between Dorcus and Clemency unsure of who to answer first.

"She killed my flubberworm. Over fed it, honestly who over feeds a flubberworm?"

At this statement Lily and Marlene's eyes meet as they remember with a shudder how they had over fed their own flubberworm in their first year.

Clemency makes it sound as if killing a flubberworm is the worst thing in the world, people who are interested in magical creatures are often odd, Lily muses to herself.

"Never apologised, just blathered on about it being 'Ceril's time'."

Ceril...Lily and Marlene mouth the name to one another.

And the Marlene goes all soft and jumps off the bed with a heavy thud to sit with her girlfriend who is still carrying the baggage of Ceril's untimely demise.

Lily looks away when they start kissing.

It's not that she's jealous, it's just...oh Merlin, she's been such a fool.

"So, what did Sybill say?"

Dorcus asks, she's like a dog with a bone.

Mary takes a shaking breath.

"She said,"

Mary loves to drag out the drama of a moment.

"...that Daddy would be bald by the time he was fifty."

Lily's green eyes widen, and from Clemency's bed she hears Marlene laughing.

Marlene's laughter starts a chain reaction and it's not long before the attic is filled with the laughter of the girls.

"I thought you said that your cottage was close to Mary's, I feel as if you're taking us on a hike, Moony."

Peter grumbles, as he hikes alongside Remus breathlessly trying to keep up.

Things had stopped being tense once Remus had, had the shard of glass removed and his hand bandaged up, and Sirius had stopped being such an insufferable pig.

"Oh go on then, climb aboard."

Sirius says to Peter with a playful grin, and a moment later, after a loud pop, Padfoot appears.

Remus is not sure he has ever seen Peter look more grateful, and he rolls his eyes as Wormtail appears from nowhere and climbs up Padfoot's shaggy pelt coming to rest across the large dog's shoulders.

And the Prongs gallops into view, and Remus finds that some how and without realising it, that he's not only holding three Muggle torches, but all the bags seem to be gathered at his feet as well.

"You absolute bloody gits!"

"What do you think that the girls are doing?"

James asks as he pulls his t-shirt up over his head exposing his skinny, seriously underwhelming frame.

After sharing a room for almost six years the four boys are use to standing around in their pants in front of each other and Frank Longbottom.

Frank, who although Remus would never admit this to the others and especially not Sirius, he can completely understand why Dorcus Meadowes had been in floods of tears when he dumped her.

"Who cares!"

Sirius shouts echo all the way from the bathroom down the hall, which causes Remus to wince because of his parents who have already gone to bed.

Unlike everyone else Sirius Black doesn't have a limit when it comes to noise, he's just loud all the time, every day.

"I've got some fudge in my bag, does anyone want any?"

Peter offers from his sleeping bag on the floor.

Oh that's another thing, Remus is sleeping with James.

It had been decided that Remus could not possibly be asked to vacate his own bed even though he'd offered, and after a bit of rock, parchment, wand, James had been victorious and would be sharing the bed with him.

He doesn't mind, since out of the three of them he'd rather share with James, than say Peter (the kicker) or Sirius (the boy that he's desperately in love with).

James hops into bed with a delighted look on his face as he reaches out for a chunk of Peter's fudge, while Remus finishes buttoning up the front of his pyjamas and shuffles off in the direction of the bathroom.

Sirius is brushing his teeth when Remus walks into the small bathroom, and it says something for how tired he is that he doesn't immediately walk right back out.

But he doesn't he stays and Sirius moves to sit on the edge of the bath with his toothbrush hagging out of the side of his mouth.

Remus reaches for his own toothbrush and cautiously watches Sirius in the mirror.

He stares right back at him.

Remus tries to concentrate on brushing his teeth, but then Sirius appears at his elbow and leans against him to spit in the sink.

He closes his eyes and just let's himself feel the familiar weight of Sirius' body against his own.

It's, it's, it's...he wants him.

And then the weight is gone and Remus feels horribly bereft.

He opens his eyes and quickly turns his back on the sink to watch as Sirius leaves the room without a backwards glance.


	12. Trip Away

Two things wake Remus up in the morning, and the first thing is an arm being wrapped around his chest, and the second, the second is unspeakable, unmentionable, and James Potter's morning glory being pressed against the back of his leg.

James clearly favours the role of the big spoon, which is interesting because Remus likes being the little spoon.

"Prongs."

James whines in his sleep, as he rubs his face against his pillow in an attempt to keep himself from waking up.

Remus can't help but laugh as he says.

"Get off me you joey."

Finally awake, James eyes snap violently open, as he rolls away from him with a scandalous shriek, which manages to rouse Peter mid snore, who mumbles.

"W-what's going on?"

"What no good morning kiss?"

Remus teases.

"In your dreams! I'll leave that to Padfoot."

Well ideally yes, Remus thinks to himself, but he's saved from having to think anymore about that as he hears his Mum's voice floating up through the floor and calling them all down to breakfast.

Breakfast turns out to be a cramped affair when conducted in a kitchen were it would be hard to fling Madam Bovary around in safely.

They are messy eaters at the best of times and somehow James ends up with elbow in the marmalade pot, while Peter practically exhales toast crumbs over everything.

Throughout all this though, Mum smiles from behind her steaming mug of tea.

"Brilliant breakfast, Mrs Lupin."

James says, because he's good with parents, and Peter's Mum practically adores him.

Mum smiles again, and for the first time in ages she looks genuinely happy, and it's a startling contrast to how she appears most of the time.

The sun spills through the kitchen windows and bathes the kitchen and it's occupants in a golden light, which causes Remus to think that this might be one of those moments to hold onto.

Sirius is sitting across from him studiously spreading raspberry jam on his toast, while catching his eye every now and then and trying not to smile.

"Right now,"

Mum says, her Welsh accent sounding broader in contrast to James' perfectly cut and rounded tones.

", let me see if I can guess who is who."

Madam Bovary stalks across the table and begins to sniff at the butter with interest, before Remus pulls her into his arms and rests her wriggling form against his chest.

Peter eyes the kitten nervously.

"Wormtail."

"Yes."

Startled Peter instantly stands up at the mention of his name, knocking his knees painfully against the edge of the table as he does so, which causes everyone, even Mum to laugh.

Mum moves onto the other two boys, a crease forming on her lined forehead as she glances between them.

"I know that one of you is Prongs and the other is Padfoot, but I just can't tell which."

"I'm Prongs!"

James exclaims excitedly.

An odd expression appears on Mum's face as she regards Sirius.

She knows.

Remus feels an odd heat flooding his cheeks.

"And you must be Mr Padfoot."

Sirius beams back at her.

"I'm the only good looking one, excluding your son, of course."

James immediately cuffs Sirius over the back of the head, which causes Peter to burst out laughing.

"Of course."

Mum replies.

"At last, I feel like my bollocks are actually on fire."

James sighs at the welcome sight of the lake, which sits glistening like some watery temptress at the bottom of the cottage's small envelope of a garden.

"Keep your sweaty balls to yourself, mate."

Sirius barks with laughter.

"He'd rather share them with, Moony."

Peter chuckles.

The four boys stop at the waters edge.

"It's a bit cold at first, but you'll soon get used to it. Mary and I have been swimming most days."

This comment earns a look from Peter as well as Sirius, whose smile has dropped a little.

"You go swimming with Mary."

Sirius asks in a distinctly unimpressed tone.

Remus feels as if he's been caught out somewhere because yes he does do a lot of swimming in Mary's company, and yes she is usually wearing that red bikini, which has slipped down more than once when they've been diving off one of the overhanging willow tree branches that line the lake.

Alright, so let's put it like this, Remus Lupin hasn't not seen Mary Macdonald's nipples, but if anyone should feel jealous about that statement then it should be Peter and not Sirius.

"There's a really great branch over here that you can use to jump into the water."

He says as he attempts to diffuse the tension.

"Excellent, show me now."

James says as he grabs Remus by the wrist and drags him in completely the wrong direction.

The water is surprisingly warm and Remus finds himself floating on his back and staring up at the endless, cloudless sky, while listening to James trying to coax Peter into jumping off of the tree branch and into the water.

"Wormy, you're not going to die, just jump for Merlin's sake!"

"No, I will die, and then I'll get it in the neck from my Mum!"

Peter's logic is frightening.

"Right Wormtail, I'm coming up there and I'm going to push you off."

"No James don't, Remus, Remus help me!"

For some reason Peter always looks to Remus to save him from James and Sirius.

"Just jump Peter, it's fun!"

He stops floating on his back and sits up in the water, calling out to his friend as he sees Peter clinging for dear life to said branch.

"Traitor!"

Peter spits back at him.

He ignores this jibe, noticing for the first time that Sirius is nowhere to be seen, he's definitely not bobbing alongside James.

He feels a sudden spike of worry, because as a Pureblood, and unlike James, whose parents are constantly concerned about him dropping dead, Sirius couldn't actually swim until Hogwarts, they, the other Maurders had to teach him.

Remus takes a breath and ducks his head under the murky depths and sees a lot of green pond weed, and the odd dart of a silvery fish, but no Sirius lying face down at the bottom.

He pops back up to the surface with a little gasp, just in time to see Peter finally cannonball into the water.

"You're right James, that was brilliant!"

Remus can't help but roll his eyes at this particular revelation.

"Let's do it again!"

Remus turns his back on his friends and swims in the direction of another clump of willow trees, keen to avoid being coaxed back up the tree himself, since he's already spent most of the morning jumping off of it.

He has to duck his head to swim under the willow tree's leaves and when he resurfaces he finds Sirius waiting for him.

Well not for him, although...

He finds himself swallowing thickly.

It's like being in the bathroom all over again.

"Welcome to my bower."

Sirius grins at him.

His skin glows under the dappled light.

"I always knew you had ambitions to be a fairy queen."

Remus snickers back, and then realises what he's just said and starts to panic internally, because that's what he does he panics internally.

"What is it Muggles say, if the cap fits?"

Remus blushes at this, he can't help himself.

"What are you doing in here?"

He tries to change the subject gesturing around 'Sirius' bower'.

"Dunno, I got bored."

That's a lie, Remus can always tell when Sirius lying.

He grins.

"You're worried about getting a tan aren't you? Concerned for that pasty House of Black complexion."

It's true.

Sirius huffs, and crosses his arms over his pasty House of Black torso.

"I'm not pasty."

Sirius grumbles.

Without Remus noticing the distance has suddenly gotten shorter, and he's not sure which one of them is moving closer to the other.

"You're almost transparent."

Remus grins.

And the space between them shrinks again.

"That's new."

Sirius points to the fresh scar on Remus' own less pasty chest.

"Padfoot."

And then he kisses him just there over the scar and Remus' mind goes utterly blank, only it doesn't, he is thinking about something, about...

"Oh!"

They snap apart at the sight of Lily Evans who has her swimming costume on and a towel tucked under her arm.


	13. Happy Talk

Lily is yawning as she makes her way down the stairs.

It's still only early, and she would have liked nothing more than to stay wrapped in her cosy cocoon of a bed, and yet, and yet the giggles that had been emanating from Marlene's bed had told her that it had been time to get up and face the day.

To be fair, so far Marlene has been fairly discreet with Clemency, it's just well no-one wants to wake up to the sound of someone else having sex, especially not when you're sharing a room.

And maybe it's not sex, maybe one of them, Marlene or Clemency had said something funny?

No, it was sex.

Lily wonders what that's like, and not just the actual physical act, but what it must feel like to have someone that you actually want to 'do it' with.

For a while she'd thought that she'd liked Severus like that, and that he might have liked her in return, but he'd gone and spoiled it all by calling her that disgusting name and showing himself in his true, ugly colours.

Severus Snape is an ugly person.

She's happy though being alone, so what if everyone is pairing up, even James Potter, who she'd seen snogging the face off a Hufflepuff called Verity Smith, for some reason Lily hadn't liked that, seeing James and Verity together.

Dorcus doesn't have a boyfriend yet, although she is boy crazy, so it's only a matter of time.

She'll be fine on her own, alone, perpetually single, unattached and unhinged.

"You should try and spend some time with that Potter boy."

Lily stops.

"James?"

She hears Mary's reply.

"His parents are a pair of doddery old fools, who have more gold than sense, I'm sure you could convince the son to get his parents to invest in the business."

That's Mr Macdonald talking.

"But Daddy I'm,"

"You're a mediocre witch Mary, but Merlin made you beautiful for some reason, don't waste your one gift on being selfish, go after the Potter boy."

Lily can't believe what she is hearing, it's the 1970s not the 1770s, what sort of a Father would pimp out his own daughter, and to James Potter of all people.

"The farm is in trouble, Mary's parents have almost run out of gold."

Lily turns her head and finds that Dorcus is standing on the stairs behind her listening just as intently.

"It's disgusting and that's no excuse."

Dorcus grabs her by the hand and pulls her back up the stairs and into the safety of Mary's bedroom.

"I agree, but Mary's parents have got a lot of pressure on them and they're not coping, and I think that sometimes both you and Marly can be blinkered."

Lily's green eyes widen at this statement, because in her opinion, although the tag of blinkered can be applied to Marlene, she on the other hand is always fair and open minded and Dorcus is giving her a look.

"And you think that this is all okay?"

Dorcus shrugs.

"It's none of our business."

"Mary is our friend!"

"If that's really the case the how come you didn't know about her family's money troubles?"

Dorcus has a point, and Lily is about to respond when Mary hurries into the room breathless and sniffing loudly.

"Oh!"

She exclaims surprised at the sight of Lily and Dorcus standing in such a tight knot in her bedroom.

Mary has obviously been crying.

"I was just telling Lils about that lake, it's not that far away is it?"

Dorcus lies, and Lily doesn't correct her.

She stands in Mary's bedroom and feels her cheeks burn, and all that she can think is that somehow her silly infatuation with Severus Snape has caused her to lose sight of her friends.

Sirius' eyes widened with delight as he watched Remus jump head first into the rippling water of the lake.

This is the version of Remus that he particularly likes, the wild, the daring and the slightly mad, that part of Moony that only The Maurders ever get to see.

He also likes the version of Remus who insists on buying them 'useful' books for Christmas, as well as the one who would hex you rather than share his chocolate.

Sirius just loves Remus, all of him, all of the time and forever.

He barks with laughter as Remus reappears crashing back through the surface of the water with his eyes shining brightly.

For one wonderful moment Sirius thinks that he might grab him and pull him into a sudden kiss right there and then, but he watches as the impulse fades quickly from Remus' face.

He feels as if his heart is sinking to the bottom of the lake, as he realises finally that Remus is never going to kiss him again.

They've been close, in fact Sirius had thought that it might actually happen in the bathroom, but Remus had pulled back, because that's what he does, he stands on the edge of their relationship and then pulls back, and it's starting to drive Sirius even madder than he already is.

He should try to move on, sooner or later Remus will, he knows it, he dreads it, sooner of later someone like Amy Floss will come along, and he'll end up watching them snog the faces off each other and have to pretend to be fine, because that's what he does, he's Sirius Black and he is FINE!

He just needs to find his own Amy Floss, although not Amy herself because he finds her a repulsive human, and actually, well he actually...

Look alright, Sirius Black is a big massive gay!

He's come to the realisation that Remus isn't the only boy that he likes, although he is the one that he likes the most.

So he'll just find another boyfriend, someone he can snog the face off in front of Remus in The Three Broomsticks and, and what...

And what?

They'll find this cold war via the medium of lips?

Oh Merlin, maybe he really should marry Alecto Carrow and have done with it?

That's not exactly a quick fix though, because he'll still have to wait four years for her to come of age, and then he's pretty certain that The Carrows will only keep him around long enough to produce an 'heir', and who they will find to do that particularly deed is anyone's guess.

So if he's lucky, he'll have a year of 'domestic bliss' before Aymcus Carrow strangles him in his sleep, but if it teaches Remus a lesson.

No, even for him that does all sound a bit extreme.

Before Sirius realises it he's managed to swim half way across the lake.

He stops swimming and treads water as he listens to the familiar sound of James and Peter bickering, and then he dives back into the water heading for no place in particular.

Stroke after stroke until he is finally halted in his progress by the low hanging branches of yet another willow tree.

He bobs up underneath the tree and finds himself resurfacing into another world filled with dabbled light and the shouts of his friends.

It's much cooler under the tree, and while sitting in the water, Sirius takes the opportunity to examine his torso and arms, which are glowing red from where he's started to burn under the extreme heat of the sun.

The Noble House of Black doesn't tan it blisters and burns.

Remus has caught a tan.

He's gone almost as brown as a nut and the freckles that are usually contained to a band across his nose have violently exploded all over his face and body, not that Sirius has been taking notes.

Alright, so he's been spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about Remus tan, freckles and body, they don't put people in Azkaban for fantasizing about their exes.

Actually while he's here and hidden from view and he is as stiff as a broom, he might as well enjoy himself.

His hand snakes towards the waistband of his trunks.

Remus appears.

He's just suddenly just there under the tree with Sirius, as if he has some secret sixth sense for when Sirius is thinking about having a cheeky wank over him and it's not fair.

It's not bloody fair.

Sirius says the first thing that pops into his head, which is always an unpredictable thing even for him.

"Welcome to my bower."

Smooth Black, smooth.

Remus rewards him with a smile, the scars on his perfect face creasing between his freckles.

Remus then goes and describes Sirius as a 'fairy queen', which Sirius doesn't immediately refute, but if either of them is a fairy queen then it's Moony.

He tries not to laugh as he watches Remus do that weird wide eyed internal panic thing that he does so well.

Falling into flirting is easier than breathing for them.

And Sirius grins as Remus closes the space between them.

"What are you doing here?"

Sirius is slightly thrown by this question as the last thing he can say is 'I was trying to wank my feelings away', instead he lies.

"Dunno, I got bored."  


The fact that Remus thinks he's pasty and not gloriously alabaster makes Sirius want to reconsider everything about their friendship.

He may huff.

Alright, he does huff.

Remus moves towards him again, and Sirius wonders if he is doing it subconsciously.

He licks his lips and then he grins, and all Sirius wants to do is snog his bloody face off just the way they use to when everything was brilliant and happy.

And Remus has a new scar on his chest.

Sirius knows all of the scars on Remus' body, and that long angry stripe down his torso is definitely new.

The things that this boy will do to himself without proper supervision.

He wants to kiss it, that new scar, because he's kissed all the others and not kissing this one feels wrong.

Sirius dips his head down and plants the softest and wettest kiss against Remus' chest, and as he does so he feels the other boy give way a little.

Just give in, Sirius thinks to himself.

Just give in and let us be happy again.

His heart skips a beat, and he finds himself remembering their first kiss, his first kiss ever, the way their teeth had clashed and there had been too much spit and Remus had accidentally smacked the back of Sirius' head against the stone castle wall.

They'd shared lots of kisses since, but nothing really compares to that first one, his first one.

"Oh!"

And then Lily Bloody Evans appears and ruins everything.


	14. The Kiss

"Let's play a game."

Mary's suggestion cuts through the listless fug that has descended over the group.

The heat haze shimmers and it's almost to hot for swimming, so the gang of Gryffindors and the Hufflepuff, sit in a heap under the shadow of a tree watching out over the water as James (mostly) and Peter show off by diving into the lake.

"Do I have to move?"

Marlene asks with a groan, her head resting in the lap of her girlfriend, who giggles down at her.

And Dorcus strums away at the guitar Sirius bought her as a replacement for the one he'd smashed to pieces in The Three Broomsticks, noodling away at the Joni Mitchell's Carey, as she moves her dexterous fingers over the strings.

"It doesn't feel like the old one, I don't think that the Wizarding World is very good at making guitars."

Dorcus muses wistfully as her fingers pause.

"Typical Black, he always gets away with everything."

Marlene grumbles raising herself up on her elbows to frown at Dorcus, who says nothing in response and lays the guitar to one side on the grass.

Despite the heat the mood under the tree, thanks to Marlene has turned decidedly frosty.

"Frank broke Sirius' nose for me, it was very romantic."

Dorcus says, her chin wobbling at the mention of Frank Longbottom's name.

Clemency stifles a giggle.

"Pete said that's why Lupin dumped him,"

Mary says dreamy, as she twists a daisy between her fingers and watches the boys in the water.

"...Sirius I mean."

She adds in as quick a pace as she is able.

"Good."

Marlene states with a huff.

"Serves him right. I think,"

She's on the point of saying more when Lily hurries towards them breathless and flushed.

Lily drops onto the grass next to Dorcus and casts a furtive glance over her shoulder.

"Did you change your mind about the swim?"

Dorcus asks.

"What? Oh, ah no I, yes."

Lily stumbles over her word.

And then less than a moment later Remus suddenly appears looking just as breathless and flushed as Lily.

"Oh my God Lupin, put it away, no-one wants to see your chest."

Marlene exclaims, which produces a violent amount of blushing from both Lily and Remus.

"Accio t-shirt."

Clemency says and with a wave of her wand a t-shirt flies through the air and comes to rest in Remus' grateful hands.

"Thank you."

He mumbles as he drags the material over his head.

At the sight of Lily having joined the girls a drenched and smiling James drags himself out of the water and towards the group beneath the tree, followed by Peter.

Sirius is the last to arrive and the expression on his face mirrors perfectly the one he had worn after he'd destroyed Dorcus' guitar in The Three Broomsticks.

And with this clearly in her mind she moves the guitar out of Sirius' reach.

"So Evans, did you like what you saw?"

James grins as he stands in front of the group his hands on his hips, with his skinny, slightly sunburned chest bare and dripping.

"It was very impressive."

Mary beams up at him, her expression causing Lily and Dorcus to exchange a knowing look.

The two girls watch as Peter attempts to wrap his arm around Mary's shoulder, and the way that she shrugs him off to go and stand next to James.

"I think we should play a game."

Mary tells James more than any one else.

"Excellent."

James chuckles, never happier than when he's the centre of attention, and Mary is certainly giving him all of her's.

"Let's play spin the bottle."

"We don't have a bottle."

Lily points out, but Clemency rectifies this with a quick 'accio bottle', and old bottle of butterbeer lifts up from the grass and floats before them.

"I don't want to kiss him."

Marlene points at Sirius, who is too busy staring at Remus to notice.

"Let's do dares or kisses."

James suggestion earns enthusiastic nods from Peter, Mary, Dorcus and Clemency, with a shrug from Marlene.

Sirius barely reacts.

With the game seemingly agreed upon James flops down onto the grass, grabbing Sirius by his wrist and pulling him down next to him.

No sooner are James and Sirius sitting than Lily suddenly pops up.

"I don't want to play."

She says with a stern look on her face.

"Oh come on Evans, I promise no tongues."

She fixes James with a look of utter disgust and turns on her heels to flounce away, tossing her long red hair over her shoulder as she goes.

"I'll come with you."

Remus volunteers.

The pair leave the field together, but with Lily marching on a little ahead.

Mary slips easily into the spot vacated by Lily, opposite James.

"Shall I go first?"

She asks with a giggle.

"James Potter is the most disgusting person who has ever lived!"

Lily fumes when they are at a safe enough distance to finally fume.

Remus watches her, furious look in her green eyes and hands balled up int fists and for the first time he wonders why she feels such hatered towards James.

Is it event hatered, or is it something else...

"It's not what you think?"

He hears himself saying.

And then she stops in her march to nowhere and turns to stare at him.

"What?"

Lily says instantly, and the look of slow realisation falls over her face, and her pretty face explodes into a blush.

"No I, I, please, I don't want to know."

"Sirius and I, it's not, it wasn't, we're not."

He finishes without finishing properly, because he doesn't even really believe it.

"Don't go. Stay here with me."

Sirius had said, no had pleaded, as he'd held tightly onto his forearm and tried to keep Remus in place.

But the sight of Lily's retreating back had brought up James' pale oxygen starved expression into his mind.

And Remus had left Sirius standing there, and instead he'd run off after Lily, and still he doesn't know why, even now when he's standing next to her.

"Are you insane?"

Lily laughs in his face, and after thinking about it clearly, Remus finds himself laughing right back.

Mary was sure that the bottle had turned against her as spin after spin it seemed to land on everyone but her intended victim, James Potter.

It wasn't even as if she wanted to kiss him.

So far she has kissed Dorcus and Clemency and now the bottle has landed on Peter of all people her actual boyfriend.

"Fix, fix!"

James and Sirius cry excitedly, as James slaps Peter on the back.

Peter chuckles and looks at her expectantly, and her head suddenly rings with her Dad's words.

"Dare."

Mary says, as if every word is like lead on her tongue, because she doesn't want to do this, she doesn't want James Potter, she wants Peter Petigrew.

"What?"

She watches as the expectant expression on Peter's face changes to surprise.

"Oh mate, I think she might have gone off you."

James teases.

And Mary watches as everyone, excluding Peter and Dorcus laugh.

"No!"

She says.

"It's not that, it's just that I kiss Pete all of the time."

"Bored of it are you."

James grins.

And Peter manages something approaching a half smile.

"Just give her the dare."

Sirius says.

And then Mary realises to her has asked James Potter and Sirius Black to dare her.

"Kiss Sirius instead."


	15. Not Specifically Glitter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the tenses.

If Sirius wasn't as queer as a nail, and he had to pick a girlfriend at wand point, then he would definitely consider Mary Macdonald.

He enjoys the way people look at them whenever they end up standing next to one another, so imagine the effect their wedding would have.

And their children would be so beautiful that they'd surely be able to take over the Wizarding World, not that Sirius thinks about that sort of thing...alot.

How much better would the world be if it was run by him, Sirius Black?

They'd be on the cover of Witch Weekly every other day.

A pair of beautiful, miserable, chronic alcoholics, and shrivelled from the inside out just like his parents.

But it's the outside that counts right?

Well Sirius would be a chronic alcoholic, Mary's very easy going so she might not be, although a life spent with him could probably wear anyone down.

Mary's lips had been soft, much softer than Remus, when she had kissed him.

She had kissed him, not the other way around, she had kneeled forward in the circle of their friends (excluding Marlene-who he hates and Clemency-who he doesn't know, but dislikes her choice in girlfriends) and grabbed him by the neck of the t-shirt and dragged his lips against her own.

Their eyes had both been open and wide, one pair of startling grey, and one pair of crystal blue.

And the seconds had dragged by like hours, but despite this Sirius had, had to admit that he could see exactly what Peter got out of kissing Mary, she'd smelt like jasmine flowers and strawberry bubble gum.

He had wished that Remus had been there to see him kiss Mary.

Sirius leans forward and spits into the sink and notices that his toothpaste is streaked with blood.

Ah gum disease, the secret shame of The Black family, after the industrial quantities of sweets he eats from Honeydukes it was only a matter of time.

By the time he's 30, which is a horrible prospect in of itself, Sirius doubts if he'll have a single tooth in his head that he will be able to claim as his own.

Perhaps rather than waiting for the decay to take hold he should instead simply have his rubbish, inbreed teeth removed and replaced with a set of goblin made golden sparklers.

Or maybe he'll wait.

Tonight he's alone in the bathroom, there's no Remus to awkwardly hover around him, and maybe that's a good thing.

He runs the tap and washes the blood and toothpaste out of the sink watching as the red and white disappears down the plug hole.

And then he catches sight of himself in the mirror and he wonders exactly who he is trying to lie to, because not having Remus hovering awkwardly anywhere around him is unbearably miserable and Sirius utterly hates it.

He turns out the light and after what feels like a long walk down a sort corridor finds himself standing on the threshold of Remus' bedroom.

Sirius can hear Peter's familiar snoring already, and James too looks like he's already asleep as well, he's not wearing his glasses, which are folded up on the table next to his side of the bed.

But he can't see Remus at this angle, alright so he can see his outline in the bed next to James, but he can't tell if he is asleep.

Sirius makes his way into the room and as he drops to his knees to climb into his sleeping bag he finds that Remus is silently staring at him.

Never one to pass up a challenge Sirius stares right back until Remus turns out the lamp next to his bed.

Sirius finally gives up with a sigh and climbs into his sleeping bag.

And then it happens, he feels something brush against his shoulder and when he reaches up, groping in the darkness to touch it he realises that it is a hand, Remus' hand to be exact.

Sirius lifts up his fingers and in the darkness he feels the familiar warmth of Remus Lupin holding his hand.

Their fingers interlock and in this awkward position Sirius falls asleep.


	16. You Only Want To Give The Gong A Bang

"I wanted to be a ballerina before I got my magic."

Dorcus says through a mouth full of crumpet, which is startlingly opposite to the image of a pristine ballerina.

"Actually,"

She continues mid chew.

"...that's how I discovered my magic. I was nine and performing as one of the toy soldiers in a production of The Nutcracker in Covent Garden. Imagine the surprise of the audience when I started levitating 20 feet up in the air. In the end when they finally managed to prize me off the ceiling I think they had to send in a team of Obliviators to deal with the mess."

Dorcus smiles at the memory, but in a slightly mournful tone she adds.

"I wasn't allowed to do ballet again, after that."

"People forget how hard it is for Muggleborns."

Marlene says from behind a steaming mug of tea.

While Lily tries very hard not to think about when she discovered her magic because the memory is so linked to Severus that is makes her want to cry.

She feels the weight of Marlene's large brown eyes pressing into her.

Dorcus casts a quick glance around the kitchen, which for the moment is occupied only by the five girls and then she gets up pushing her chair in.

"If I show you this you can't ever tell anyone else."

Lily, Marlene and Clemency all nod in unison and various levels of interest.

And then Dorcus' points a finger at Mary.

"Not even Peter."

Mary has a nasty habit of telling Peter Petigrew everything that happens in their friendship group.

At first she shrugs, but under the pressure of the looks from the other girls Mary finally nods her agreement.

And then Dorcus flies, she actually flies around the kitchen, first touching one wall and then the other.

Dorcus Meadowes can fly.

Lily's mouth hangs open as she watches her friend.

Levitation is one thing, but flying with out the aid of a broom or a wand is something completely different, and the rarest magic of all.

"Bloody hell!"

Clemency exclaims wide eyed with amazement.

"Why haven't you ever signed up for the Quidditch team, we could finally get rid of Black?"

Marlene says.

From half way up in the air Dorcus giggles.

The right side of Remus' body is flooded with pain as he opens his eyes to welcome a new day, which finds James once again as hard as a broom and attached to him like a limpit, but that's not the only thing that's attached to him.

He crains his head over the edge of the bed and finds that Sirius is still holding his hand despite being fast asleep.

Sirius is so beautiful, but he's even more perfect when he's fast asleep, and his face is so soft, and he looks like a hero from a painting.

Oh Merlin, Remus wants to tattoo the image of a sleeping Sirius on the inside of his head forever.

He will love him forever.

His heart aches with want.

He had been the one to instigate it, the nocturnal bout of hand holding, because now that Sirius is here, now that he's lying by his side, Remus is finding it harder and harder to ignore his feelings.

It will be this way once their back at school, their beds are next to one another.

Perhaps he could convince Peter or Frank to switch places, but Sirius will still be in the same room and Remus will be climbing the walls to touch him, kiss him, feel all of him all of the time.

Why can't he be happy?

Why does he want to condemn himself to a life of loneliness and regret, he'll have that long after Sirius has grown tired and moved on.

His hand tightens on Sirius'.

It's instinctive, as he wants to hold the thing that is the most precious and important close.

Sirius could be his again, all he has to do is let himself fall.

James snores himself wake against Remus' back, and it takes him longer than it should for him to realise that Remus is not in fact Lily or any other pretty girl, and he rolls away.

In the commotion Remus let's go of Sirius' hand and he feels the loss instantly.

"Sorry. I won't let it happen again."

James apologies, as he clutched the bed sheet against his pyjama clad chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So do we think that Mary really didn't tell Peter?


	17. The Pub Owns Us Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a super quick, super short update...enjoy I hope...  
> Also what do we this that Lupin and Mary did?

They finish their breakfast outside due to the fact that Dad has the day off and Remus is keen that The Maurders, and especially not Sirius, are under his feet, so outside they sit enjoying their toast and hot sweet tea.

Well, Remus' tea is sweet after the addition of six sugars.

"Your Mum makes a great brew."

Sirius grins and presses his shoulder against Remus', and he finds himself pressing back.

"I'll be sure to pass on your compliments."

They're so close that Remus can smell that warm sweet smell that is so unique to Sirius.

"What's on the agenda Brenda?" 

James asks, while Peter snorts with laughter.

Remus is on the point of answering exactly what is on the agenda for today when a shadow flits into the corner of his eye.

"Hello Mary."

Peter is the first to greet Mary, as he gets up and moves to stand next to her.

Remus shields his eyes against inst the sun as he stares at the comically mismatched pair.

"Where's Evans?"

James enquires predictably.

"Lily is still at mine with the others, but they're going to pop buy at lunch time."

Mary turns her attention to Remus and asks.

"Shall we go then, Lupin?"

Three sets of eyes move between them as Remus stands up to dust himself down.

"Where are you going with her?"

Sirius asks in a tone that is more threatening than either of them would probably like.

"On Wednesdays we have to work at the pub."

Mary explains for him.

"A Muggle pub?"

James sits bolt up right with his back completely straight, his eyes alight with wonder...it looks a bit like wonder.

Remus digs his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugs.

"A thing happened,"

He glances at Mary nervously, who returns his gaze with a blush.

"...and now the pub owns us. We have to clean out the slop trays,"

"What's a slop tray?"

Peter questions as his nose wrinkled with disgust.

Remus continues in a way that suggests he's ignoring Peter.

"We have to clean out slop trays, and collect up glasses, and I've got a 'special' bucket to use in the gents."

Remus notices the way Sirius smiles at his use of air quotes around the word special.

They have a couple thing, which just happens to be Remus doing air quotes.

But they're not a couple any more, he reminds himself resolutely.

"That sounds fantastic!"

James gushes excitedly, causing Remus to wonder how they ever became friends in the first place.

"Can we come by at lunch time?"

Sirius asks with the sort of hopeful expression that causes Remus to question everything about his life.

He feels a familiar heat rising up in his cheeks.

"Of course!"

James roars an answer that nobody actually asked him for, and the width of Sirius' smile gets wider, because what James says goes.

They start to leave then, Remus and Mary, but not before she has given Peter a quick kiss.

"Oh!"

Mary exclaims after the kiss, as if she's suddenly remembered something that she's forgotten and pulls back instantly.

As they wander away from their friends, Remus' reaches for Mary's hand, they hold hands a lot now, it started when Mary would just grab his hand as they walked along, but now, now Remus actually enjoys it.

Perhaps physical contact with people other than his friends and his parents can be a good thing...perhaps?


	18. John?

"What was I thinking?"

Dorcus moans bitterly, as her face contorts into a painful wince with each step.

"It's you're own fault, you were the one who insisted on wearing your new shoes without breaking them in."

Sometimes Marlene can be as bloodless and unsympathetic as any Slytherin.

The four of them Lily, Marlene, Dorcus and Clemency are walking along a narrow country road, which is flanked by high lush green hedgerows, with flowers crowns of daisies resting on their heads.

Lily pauses in the middle of the empty road and gives Dorcus an appraising look as the other girl struggles to catch up.

"High heels are not suitable footwear for the countryside, 50 points from Gryffindor Miss Meadowes."

Lily says in an almost perfect imitation of Professor Mcgonnigal.

A bubble of laughter erupts from the girls excluding Dorcus of course who is struggling to walk.

"You could always take off again."

Clemency offers, her hand entwined with Marlene's.

Dorcus moans bitterly.

"Carry me. You're 17, you can use your magic."

Clemency shoots Marlene a careful look, as the younger girl shakes her head.

"We're standing in the middle of a road, people end up with their wands snapped and in Azkaban for less."

"Sirius!"

Dorcus exclaims, as three boys appear at the bottom of the road.

"This week can't end soon enough."

Lily muses under her breath at the sight of James, who is grinning back at her like a loon.

"Sirius carry me, please?"

Dorcus begs Sirius in a pathetic and plaintive voice.

"Climb on then, Dorc."

And with a squeal of excitement she takes off her offending shoes, which have torn her poor feet to ribbons and climbs onto Sirius' back.

She leaves her high heels on the road, and after a beat, seeing as no-one else is offering, Lily grudgingly picks them up.

"Hop on then, Evans!"

James says, as he crouches down in front of her.

"Please go off and die."

"Surely that's a hate crime?"

James says, as he stares up at the vivid sign for The Lamb & The Knife pub, which instead of featuring either a lamb or a knife, has the image of a decapitated head of a wolf, and no ordinary wolf, a werewolf.

The most surprising thing about the sign is how accurate the werewolf featured upon it is, and it causes James to wonder if the person who designed it has seen such a thing in real life, and in such a state.

There was a time when werewolves were hunted, The Potters, his own family, can lay claim to a dozen or so historic pelts, but such practices have been band for at least a century and a half.

Do they still hunt werewolves in Somerset?

He throws a side long glance at Sirius, who is standing next to him with Dorcus clinging to his back, and his face for the first time ever is unreadable to James.

And then he gets distracted as Lily walks past.

With Dorcus' arms still tight around his neck and the weight of her body against his back Sirius barges through the pubs open door ready to drag Remus out by his ear, because he's had enough of all the pretending.

Because Remus is a werewolf, and he should not be frequenting establishments that actively celebrate the murder of his 'own kind'.

His 'own kind' Sirius hates it when Remus refers to other werewolves like that, because frankly what do they know about him, what does he know about them?

They are his kind, The Maurders, James and Peter and him, and they always will be.

And he is absolutely, positively about to let Remus exactly this when he sees him, he sees Remus standing next to the bar.

It may sound odd but Sirius has had a selection of various specific fantasies, which feature Remus somehow wrestling control of The Three Broomsticks from Madam Rosmerta, and serving him pint after pint of oak matured mead naked, of course Remus is naked, forever.

Sirius is a creature of simple needs.

Anyway, while Remus may not be behind the bar, and he may not be offering him a foaming pint of ale, and he is definitely not naked, he is wearing a pair of disgusting Wellington boots, and marigolds rolled all the way up to his elbows, oh and the finishing touch, which is a grimy apron with a faded map of one of the 'known' Greek Islands on it, to Sirius he is still...

"No, kids in the bar!"

A gruff, middle aged pot bellied bar man says disrupting Sirius' train of thought.

"We've come to see our friends?"

Dorcus says from over Sirius' shoulder.

"No unaccompanied children in the bar, you'll have to wait for them in the beer garden. John, Mary your friends are here."

John, Sirius' eyes widen...who in the name of Merlin is John?


	19. Skittles

"No sorry John, you can't sit with us we're waiting for our friend Remus."

Sirius says with a mischievous grin as Remus rolls his eyes and folds himself into the space on the bench next to him.

Both James and Peter laugh.

"If the wizard thing doesn't work out you should think about a career in stand-up."

Remus muses, which causes Sirius' grin to widen.

"I thought we weren't using the w word?"

James teases.

"What w word?"

Remus asks and then instantly regrets it.

"All of them."

Peter snorts.

All three boys fall about in a fit of laughter that is so strong Remus wonders if they've been at the Giggle Water.

He rests his hand against Sirius' thigh as he tries to explain, and he fails to notice the smirk that has appeared on the other boy's face.

"I couldn't very well use my real name, I don't want my parents to find out."

"What have you done?"

James asks with genuine interest as he leans forward across the table.

Remus' face blanches.

"I don't want to talk about it."

He mumbles.

Disappointment flits briefly across James' features.

"Why John though?"

Peter says, as a wrinkle forms down the middle of his oddly shaped nose.

Why not John, John is as perfectly good a name as any other, especially when you compare it to...

"His middle name is John."

Sirius says.

Remus forgets his train of thought entirely, as James and Peter fade into the background and as he finds himself staring at Sirius almost open mouthed.

"Hang on, what, how do you know that?"

Sirius grins at him.

"I remembered."

He says with the most casual shrug imaginable.

Instantly Remus tries to recall any of the occasions in which he may have shared with his friends his middle name.

"You told us in the first year."

Sirius clarifies.

Remus' feels his cheeks burn instantly red.

"You two are a bloody nightmare."

James snickers, while Peter looks more perplexed than usual.

"Are you lot ready to get beaten?"

Lily asks, as her head appears through the shaded doorway of the skittles alley where the girls had been excitedly setting up the game for them to play.

James and Sirius have never encountered the Muggle game of skittles and as usual they are ridiculously enthusiastic in the face of trying anything new.

James practically leaps to his feet to join Lily with Peter hurrying along behind, but as Sirius moves to follow them Remus catches him by the top of his arm.

Sirius brow furrows as he stares down at Remus' hand.

"Moony,"

He starts to say, but is stopped as he feels Remus' lips against his own.

It lasts for less than a second, and is only really a brush of the lips, but in that moment, in that beautifully sunlit garden of the pub with the gruesome anti-Werewolf sign Sirius has never felt happier.

He's missed kissing Remus beyond words.

James smiles as he watches his friends kissing through a small window inside the skittles alley, which has a crack running through it, not the small cast iron building, but the glass in the window.

"That's about time."

He hears Lily say at his elbow.

"Yes."

James agrees with her.

He turns to look at her, and it almost hurts because Lily is so beautiful.

"But don't say anything."

He taps the side of his nose.

Lily smiles.


	20. And Now You Must Play Forever

Remus can still feel Sirius' skin beneath his fingers, and the pressure of his lips against his own.

His body hums with glorious happiness as rays of golden summer sunshine flood through the skittle alley's four small windows bathing everything in brilliant light.

He can't stop smiling, his face aches with the weight of his grin as he finds Sirius' gaze.

The two boys share a smile, which appears to make them not only oblivious, but also invisible to the rest of their friends.

And then slowly the real world slips back in as Remus listens to the sound of James taking charge as he splits the group into those who have and those who haven't played the Muggle game of skittles before.

Remus of course has because Mary has been teaching him, so he joins her, Peter, Lily and Dorcus as the people who have a clue what's going on, while Sirius, Marlene and Clemency all stand to one side.

Despite being a half blood himself, he's always felt that little bit closer to the Muggle world, and he's never found it hard to transition between the two, and he knows that it's the same for Peter, but there are other half-bloods like Marlene and Clemency who seem completely disassociated from Muggles.

"Right,"

James says as he claps his hands together as he regards the two groups, acting ever inch the Quidditch captain that he is.

"Padfoot and I are team captains."

This statement immediately earns a complaint from Marlene and a rye smile from Sirius, who winks at Remus.

"I think we should all have a say in who the captains are."

Lily chimes in.

James looks at her for a beat, with his cheeks particularly glowing.

"And if you let me finish my flower,"

Lily sneers with disgust at this comment.

"...you would have heard me say, that Padfoot and I are team captains, but Sirius will be giving way on this occasion to Evans."

James concludes with a wonderful smile, leaving Remus to wish that he had an ounce of his friend's natural confidence.

"Nice one, James."

Peter says.

While Lily folds her arms across her chest with a self-satisfied smirk.

James Fleamont Potter you have been played.

"I'll take Sirius."

She says without equivocation.

The smile on Sirius' face dies as he shares a confused look with James before shuffling over to stand next to a triumphant looking Lily.

"I'll have Marlene."

James retaliates exchanging one best friend for another.

Marlene's hand slips from Clemency's and she goes over to join her captain.

Lily's green eyes narrow.

"Peter."

She says much to everybody's surprise since Remus had considered himself the next most obvious choice.

Peter gives James a pathetically plaintive look, but eventually ends up standing next to Sirius who rests his elbow against the shorter boy's shoulder.

"Moony."

James says all pretence of strategy having gone out the window.

Remus tries to avoid Sirius' disappointed gaze as he digs his hands into the pockets of his jeans and stands next to James.

Mary, Dorcus and Clemency wait in the middle to be picked.

"Mary."

Lily points at her friend.

And while this happens all Remus can repeat as a silent mantra is not Dorcus, not Dorcus, not Dorcus, but of course James is left with no option other than Dorcus, since he'll probably never hear the end of it if he doesn't choose her.

Dorcus joins them with a beaming smile, which causes Remus to feel guilty over how much he dislikes her.

"What about Clem?"

Marlene asks.

"I'll flip you for her."

James says as he produces a galleon from his pocket.

Lily looks as if she is about to take him up on his offer when Clemency herself interrupts. 

"I can keep score."

She volunteers pointing at a nearby chalkboard.

The game gets heated fairly fast with so many competitive Gryffindors, perhaps Clemency, the only Hufflepuff in the group had done the right thing by staying out of things.

She sits under the chalkboard with her nose buried in a yellowing pamphlet, which details the various nearby tourist attractions, which include Glastonbury Tor, Wells Cathedral, Godric's Hollow...

Clemency pauses over the name Godric's Hollow as the piece of white chalk floating in the air stops recording the score, which finds Lily Evans in the lead.

"Marly,"

Her eyes drift up from the page as she addresses her girlfriend, who has just finished taking her turn.

", do you think this is your Godric?"

Marlene makes her way over to Clemency snatching the pamphlet out of her hand to read.

She settles herself on a seat as Clemency rests her head lightly against her shoulder.

"Dorc, does Godric's Hollow have anything to do with Gryffindor?"

Marlene asks her team mate.

Dorcus is the only person who ever pays attention during their History of Magic lessons.

"Yes."

Dorcus replies simply, pausing for a moment to roll her ball, which stops dead in the middle of the alley, much to James annoyance.

"Mary, is there a bus to Godric's Hollow from here?"

Marlene quizzes her friend, who is apparently busily staring into space.

A frown forms over Mary's beautiful face.

"What?"

"Godric's Hollow is there a bus?"

Marlene repeateds her question.

With everyone's attention either on the game or Marlene, Sirius takes the opportunity to cross the invisible barrier between them and stand next to Remus.

He smiles up at Remus who looks down upon him with a wonderful blush across his face that he wants to kiss over and over and over again.

"Alright?"

Sirius nudges Remus with his elbow and watches with utter joy as the hue on the other boy's face darkens.

"Yea, you?"

I love you, Sirius thinks to himself, although he knows his friend well enough from mentioning that again, especially in public.

He knows that Remus isn't ready for any declarations.

"I should concentrate for Prongs."

They both turn to look at James who is growing increasingly heated at the way the game is going.

Sirius reaches out and holds Remus' arm with both his hands.

"You're not going to win, but good luck anyway."

He says with a chuckle, as he lets Remus go.

"Thank you, Padfoot."

Sirius stands back and watches Remus fail exactly the way that competitive part of his brain had wanted him to.

Sirius likes to win, he may be hopelessly in love with Remus, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to beat the object of his affection hollow, because what is love if not a competition?

And now that kissing has been put back on the table, Sirius feels a compulsion to compete the life out of Remus.

"Is it over yet?"

Peter joins them, with a weary expression on his face.

"No, now that we've started the game we'll have to play it forever, or don't you remember the rules?"

Remus teases, well at least Sirius certainly hopes that he is teasing.

"I hate rules."

Peter comments miserably.

"We know you do and that's why we love you, mate."

Sirius beams as he rests his chin against the top of Peter's head.

"Stop trying to nobble my team mate."

James appears at Remus' side with a huff.

"Nobblings not really what I had in mind."

Sirius watches with emense satisfaction as Remus' blush turns a shade darker still.

He shares a look with James, which promises to tell him all about it later without either of them saying a word.

"I give up."

Peter deflates.

"Me too. I think it's safe to say that Lily has won this match."

Remus says when he finally recovers the gift of speech.

"You lot are rubbish, especially you."

James points an accusing finger at Sirius.

"You should have nobbled yourself."

Sirius is about to follow up that comment by explaining that as hard as he might try he simply can't bend that way, when Lily addresses the group as a whole.

"Since my victory over Potter is unequivocal,"

She states with all the humility of a queen.

"...I have decided that tomorrow we shall be taking the bus to Godric's Hollow."


	21. That Putrid Shade of Green Really Suits You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I would just like to point out that green is actually my favourite colour.

The heavens open just as Remus steps over the threshold of the cottage door, where Mum is waiting for him with her usual concerned expression.

The four boys stand together in the small hallway as Mum addresses him.

"The electricity has gone off,"

She explains with a heavy sigh, and Remus wishes that there was something he could do to make his Mum's life better, happier, easier.

"...I've checked the fuses, but they seem fine,"

She continues.

"Where's Dad?"

Remus asks, even though he already knows the answer since the cottage feels horribly empty.

Has Mum been here all day, stuck with no electricity?

A wave of guilt washes over him at the thought.

"He'll be back in the morning."

Remus wonders if it's finally happened, if Mum and Dad have finally split up?

"Can you please go to the Macdonald's and see if you can get them to help?"

"But it's raining."

Sirius interrupts, clearly horror struck by the idea that Mum would ask Remus to go out in such weather.

Remus ignores him and reaches out for the waterproof that has been sitting on the coat hook in the hallway since they moved in, because this is England and the summer so of course it will rain at some point.

He drags on the material and launches himself out into the rain before Sirius or anyone else feels the need to interrupt.

There's a faint rumble of thunder above his head as he pulls up his hood.

The rain beats down turning everything grey and hazy as Remus makes a run for it, splashing through the newly minted puddles.

He takes the short cut around the back of the house, and as he slides his way across the line of trees, slipping in the mud, he has the feeling that something is following him.

Instinctively he reaches for his wand, and remembers to late, that since it's the summer holidays, that he's left it under his pillow on his bed.

Stupid, stupid Lupin.

Remus catches sight of something moving, a dark mass cutting through the flashes of silver.

The beat of his heart speeds up, and he tightens his sweaty palms against a nearby branch.

He squints into the rain straining to see.

He thinks he hears a pop somewhere under the downpour.

"Moony."

And the James Potter appears out of nowhere and frightens the life out of Remus.

"Prongs, you bloody git, what are you doing!"

"I'm being a bloody good friend."

James counters with a wide smile.

Both boys are soaking wet by the time they reach The Macdonald's farm, which is ablaze from every window with amber light.

The boys shiver together as James knocks on the front door, and after a beat the door is opened by Mary's younger sister Minnie, who practically dissolves into a blush at the sight Remus.

"Hello Minnie, we've come to see your Dad,"

"Or your Mum."

James chimes in.

"Or anyone over age."

Remus concludes.

Furiously blushing Minnie steps to one side to let both boys into the fortifying warmth of the farmhouse, where their teeth chatter and James' glasses steam up.

"Mummy is in the kitchen."

Minnie explains in a small voice.

"I'll deal with this, you stay here."

Remus tells James in a commanding note, before being lead off in the direction of the kitchen by Minnie.

With a slight huff James drags his glasses off the end of his nose and begins to clean the lenses with the sudden hem of his t-shirt, it's so much easier with a wand.

As he puts his glasses back on he suddenly sees Lily standing on the stairs resplendent in a light green dressing gown.

James swallows thickly and grins up at her.

"Nice dressing gown, Evans, that shade of putrid green really suits you."

He teases her, he doesn't like her in green it reminds him of Slytherin, and that leads him to thoughts of Snape.

"What are you doing here?"

Lily ignores him, as he folds her arms tightly across her chest.

"I'm here to keep Moony from doing something he'll regret."

James replies.

Lily takes a step towards him making her way down the stairs.

"Like what?"

She asks with genuine interest, as she peers around the stairs to check that Remus is unable to over hear them.

They're standing together now, with Lily leaning towards him slightly.

"Like Sirius."

James says in a low voice.

Lily's lovely green eyes widen in surprise, and he revels in the sight of her scandalous expression.

"They wouldn't do that would they?"

James watches her closely.

"Of course they would, plus it's raining, which is romantic, and,"

"Rain is in no way romantic." 

Lily interrupts him.

"Rain is definitely romantic. It's the medium of romance. You get all wet, and then it's like 'oh Mr Moony let us take shelter in this nearby barn, where we will not end up having sex', followed by 'oh Mr Padfoot my trousers have fallen down'."

"You paint a horribly vivid picture."

The bridge of her nose creases in disgust.

"Why thank you Evans."

He smirks.

She edges closer to him, and as she does so he catches the hint of her perfume, which smells of roses.

"Neither of them are ready for that."

Lily concludes with a conspiratorial note in her voice, while James realises that this is the longest time that they've ever gone without her hexing him.

He likes it.

No that's not true he lov...

"Right, Donald has apprated to the cottage and I suggest that you and I join him there."

Remus reappears before James has a chance to finish his thought and the sight of him causes Lily to jump away.

Remus' gaze shifts between the pair who appear oddly conspiratorial.

"Have I missed something?"

He asks.

"No."

Lily replies quickly.

"Absolutely not."

James agrees.


	22. Remus Lupin's Birthday pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is the 2nd part of what happened in my story A Song for Remus and basically the catalyst for why Wolfstar aren't together.
> 
> Sirius' song is Wolf Song by Patrick Wolf.
> 
> Also Remus has a thing for hair.

10th March.

The Three Broomsticks is possibly Remus Lupin's favourite place in Hogsmeade, after Honeydukes of course, speaking of Honeydukes, half the contents of the shop has been laid out before him, he should have a birthday every Hogsmeade Weekend.

He's surrounded by his friends, not just The Maurders, but Lily, Marlene, Mary, Frank and Dorcus, as well.

Amy Floss, the 4th year Ravenclaw that Remus' had spent most of the previous year snogging the face off, appears at their table carrying a large tray filled with Butterbeers and Gigglewaters, and is helped by Marlene's Hufflepuff girlfriend, Clemency Wong.

"Happy birthday, Remus."

Amy says, as she leans across the table and plants a kiss on Remus' cheek, which colours suddenly.

She's wearing the navy tweed jacket, which Remus once said complimented her olive skin tone, it doesn't, he can clearly see that now, but he's been so desperate to shove his tongue down her throat at the time that he would have said anything. 

"Thanks, thank you, Amy."

Remus replies in a gasp of embarrassment.

While at his elbow he notices Sirius' gaze darken towards the Ravenclaw, and his grip around Remus shoulders tighten.

At least her long brown hair is contained by two tightly bound plaits, he never liked her hair when she put it in plaits.

"Amy, why don't you come and sit down?"

Lily says as she enchants a vacant chair to appear next to her.

Giggling slightly Amy settles herself in the seat next to Lily, and Remus feels as if he can breathe a little easier as the two girls fall into conversation.

Lily Evans is a saint and a saviour.

"Are you wearing the bracelet I made for you?"

Mary enquires, with an expectant look.

"Yes, Moony are you wearing the bracelet that Mary so thoughtfully made for you?"

James says with a wicked smile as a shovels a handful of Every Flavored beans into his mouth, and Remus hates him utterly.

Sirius rests his chin on Remus' shoulder and shares a mischievous look with James.

"Oh Mary, I'm so sorry but I must have left it on my bed."

Remus says anxiously.

"No you didn't."

Peter pipes up.

"I've got it here."

Remus' eyes widen in horror as Peter produces the beaded rainbow bracelet from his pocket.

Peter Pettigrew is a bloody traitor.

James, Sirius and Peter dissolve into a fit of laughter.

The three of them have planned this.

"Oh Pete, this is why I love you, because you always have a plan."

Mary exclaims excitedly.

The bracelet gets forgotten, discarded on the table as Peter asks.

"Do you love me, Mary?"

He's blushing.

And suddenly James and Sirius aren't laughing anymore, the three of them lean forward in interest.

Mary giggles, as she wraps a stand of golden hair around one of her graceful fingers.

"Of course I do."

She admits with a shy smile.

After that Peter and Mary drop off the map with so much snogging.

James steals a longing look at Lily.

"I think it's time for me to give you my present."

Sirius leans in and whispers hotly against the shell of Remus' ear, which sends a shiver down his spine.

"Dorcus, I need you."

Sirius says as he slides out of his seat, and Dorcus untangles herself from Frank Longbottom and follows him.

"Where are they going?"

Remus asks nervously as he watches the pair disappear.

"This is going to be priceless."

Frank chuckles ominously.

Less than a minute later Sirius returns with Dorcus' precious guitar in his hands and Remus begins to panic.

Dorcus rushes back to the table to take back her seat next to Frank, as all eyes turn towards Sirius Black.

"Happy Birthday, Moony."

Sirius says with a grin.

"I wrote this song for you."

This statement garners a wolf whistle from a nearby table of Slytherins, which just happens to contain Sirius' younger brother Regulus.

Suddenly Remus is caught between wanting the floor to swallow him up and at the same being incredibly proud of his wonderful boyfriend.

And then Sirius starts to sing.

I know just where you've been boy, i've watched you by the stream.

And don't be afraid of the dark  
'cos the darkness is simply a womb for the lonely.

Swallow your pride boy and walk with us through the hills and trees.

Oh yes! your Welsh eyes they are turning red.

Inwardly Remus' tenses at the mention of his eyes turning red, and he catches James' hazel eyes.

There's a snigger, Remus distinctly hears it from over at the Slytherin table and after that everything seems to happen in a flurry as Sirius erupts into a sudden fit of range.

He sits there opened mouthed as Sirius smashes Dorcus' precious guitar down the middle of the Slytherin table causing Regulus and his friends to jump dramatically out of the way as splinters of wood fill the air along with Dorcus' shrill sobs.

How has this happened again?

It's like Sirius' duel with Emmeline Vance all over again.

Remus doesn't stay to watch anymore without anyone notices he leaves the site of deviststion formally known as his fifteenth birthday and hurries out into the rain.


	23. All Slytherins Look Alike To Lily Evans

"How long do we have until the girls get here?"

Remus asks as he finishes his mug of tea.

"Half an hour, cariad."

Mum replies as she consults her watch and lays yet another stack of toast in front of the hungry boys.

"I need the toilet again."

Remus says with a flustered expression as he excuses himself from the table, and knocking his knee painfully against the table's leg.

His face flushes as he rushes out of the kitchen and up the stairs towards the bathroom.

"He drinks too much."

James states in a knowing tone as he finally tares his gaze away from the Muggle toaster having never seen such a device before.

Remus has got a spot on his chin, an actual yellow puss filled spot on his chin.

As he studies himself in the mirror above the sink he wonders how long the spot has been there, was in there when he kissed Sirius in the beer garden?

His cheeks colour at the thought.

He doesn't think he's ever seen a spot on Sirius' face.

Sirius is staring back at him in the mirror, the sight of which causes Remus to bang his forehead against the mirror.

"Ow!"

He complains bitterly.

Sirius laughs.

Sirius openly laughs at him.

"Is that what you're doing up here beautifying yourself for me?"

Remus rubs his forehead with a grumble as he turns to face Sirius, the bathroom sink pressing hard against his back.

"I am not beautifying myself for you."

Remus lies.

"How's the nervous bladder?"

Sirius grins.

"I don't have a nervous bladder."

He sighs back his reply.

He watches as Sirius carefully closes the bathroom door and moves towards him.

Without know how it happened he finds himself looking down upon the upturned grinning face of the slightly shorter, slightly older boy.

He's missed this, missed being this close.

He feels himself returning Sirius' toothy grin.

"Your bladder is bloody terrified."

"Can we please talk about something other than my bladder, which is not nervous."

Sirius' lips have an almost hypnotic effect upon Remus.

He leans in to kiss him.

"You've got a spot on your chin."

Sirius points out as his gaze glitters with mischief.

"Please stop."

Remus pleads as their noses brush against each other.

"Make me.

"I swear to Merlin that this is some devious plan of yours to ruin my feet."

Dorcus moans bitterly, as she points an accusing finger at Mary.

"Nonsense, Mary doesn't know how to plan."

Marlene says, as she wraps one arm around Mary's waist and plants a kiss on her shoulder.

"I've never been on a Muggle bus before."

Clemency puffs, as the small group of girls hike their way up the steep road towards the bus stop.

"It's not very exciting. Nothing moves inside, we just sit in our seats and stare out of the windows at not particularly interesting things and try not to make eye contact with anyone else."

Lily explains.

Marlene let's go of Mary and turns to face her girlfriend, so that she is walking backwards in the middle of the group, her heavy boots scraping across the weathered tarmac.

"My brother Denis, once took me on one of those open topped Muggle buses that tourists use in London because he wanted to hide from his fiancee. "

"Which brother is that, is it the good looking Quidditch one?"

Dorcus asks.

The only one of Marlene's older brother's than she can correctly identify is 'the good looking Quidditch one', who plays as a professional chaser for the team Puddlemere United.

"No, that's Alfie, Denis works at St.Mungos."

Marlene replies with a roll of her large brown eyes, before fixing Lily with a look that screams 'honestly Dorcus is such a plum'.

"Oh."

Dorcus mumbles with a deflated sigh.

Since they're on the subject of the McKinnon family Lily decides to ask about Rory, Marlene's other brother, who until recently had been their head boy at Hogwarts and a Slytherin to boot.

"Has Rory got a job yet?"

At the mention of this particular brother's name Marlene's demeanour changes becoming more guarded under Lily's gaze.

"He's working at the Prophet with Mum, but I haven't seen him since the start of the holidays."

Marlene's Mum is the picture editor for The Daily Prophet, while her Dad works as the head of the department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures in the ministry.

Marlene's face becomes suddenly pensive.

"He's moved into a flat with Amycus Carrow."

The progress of the girls slows the a halt.

"Are they, you know, together?"

Dorcus enquires with interest in a stage whisper, she's always keen on gossip.

Marlene seeks out Lily's gaze, and the two girls exchange a knowing look.

"I don't know, Rory has always been suspiciously private about his life."

She shrugs, while Lily finds herself thinking of Petunia, who is the same age as Rory McKinnon, and who has recently entered the Muggle workforce as a secretary at a firm that makes drills or parts for drills, or perhaps it's tyres, the point is that they've drifted so far apart from one another that she doesn't know what her own sister is doing.

They start walking again and Mary says in an oddly conversational tone.

"If Rory and Amycus are an item that means you'll be related to Sirius by marriage."

"Mary, honestly what are you talking about?"

Marlene frowns.

"Pete told me that Sirius is engaged to Amycus Carrow's sister, you know the miserable looking one in the third year. Spotty, short and dumpy."

Lily tries to picture Amycus Carrow's sister in her head, but all she can envision is a blank space above a Slytherin uniform, do all Slytherins look alike to her now?

That's not the point though the point is that The Carrows, the family, perhaps not Amycus, although he does look the type, are confirmed Death Eaters.

Does this mean that Marlene's brother is a Death Eater as well?

And then she's distracted as she hears Dorcus giggle.

"Ah Peter our inside man."


	24. Martin Lane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can't sleep.  
> Before anyone asks Weston-super-mare is a real place.

As with most of his fellow bus drivers, Martin Lane, has never enjoyed working the Weston-super-Mare to Godric's Hollow route.

The journey is scenic, perhaps one of the prettiest that they operate, however the final destination, depending on whatever way you look at it, the village of Godric's Hollow puts most of the other drivers off.

It's a strange place, which has an effect on all of them, the houses that your brain tells you are there standing as solid as all the others, but which your traitorous eyes cannot see.

The effect is worse for him, because he can see the things that the inhabitants of Godric's Hollow try to hide, and he is well aware that the village has one of the largest populations of witches and wizards outside of Hogsmeade.

Martin Lane is no ordinary, bus driving Muggle.

Martin Lane is a squib. 

He scratches the end of his nose as the bus pulls up at it's next stop, the doors fly open and he is greeted by a gaggle of teenagers.

Oh how he has come to hate teenagers, with three of his own at home, all girls, all Muggles, so many doors being slammed, and long tear filled telephone calls that run up the family's bill.

Ordinary he barely looks at embarking passengers, but he can't take his eyes off the girl who runs up the bus' stairs.

She looks like a model, with legs up to her neck and as he stares at her he has to remind himself that his eldest daughter, Shelly, is probably the same age.

"Five returns from Godric's Hollow, please."

The girl sweeps long golden curls out of her beautiful face as she presents him with the exact amount for the fare.

With a dry mouth Martin passes the girl her tickets, his eyes darting to the mirror as she skips down the bus giggling.

Five girls file onto the bus behind her.

There's a pretty red head with the strap of an expensive looking camera hanging from around her neck.

A plain looking brunette, who is in possession of the largest brown eyes he has ever seen.

Behind her is a girl he assumes is probably of Chinese extraction, who has a small bag on her shoulder, which clatters ominously as she passes him, which causes him to wonder if she is using some sort of extendable charm.

A petite black girl with a large afro hairstyle brings up the rear completing the group.

Witches every single one of them.

He's so busy watching the girls as they settle in their seats that he barely hears the boy as he requests four returns from Godric's Hollow.

The girls reek of Hogwarts and he can tell that they're all witches, the way they titter in amazement at something as mundane as the interior of his bus.

"Four Godric's Hollow returns."

He finally looks at the boy, who is short, blonde and has the sort of physique that will run to fat in only a few years time.

The boy hands him a five pound note, which forces him to raid his change bag with an aggrieved sigh.

Just to pay the boy back he pays him in coppers and the odd 10p piece, which hopefully will teach him a lesson about correct change.

The boy grumbles bitterly as he shoves the coins into his pocket and marches up the bus to join the girls.

He takes about the same amount of interest in the boys as he does the girls.

The short blonde wizard is followed by a boy in glasses, whose hair is in desperate need of a good brush.

There's another girl with long dark ringlets, high cheekbones and a swagger that makes her instantly distasteful.

The final passenger is one of the saddest wretches that Martin thinks he may ever have seen on his bus or anywhere else.

The boy in question has the air of the downtrodden, and a face that appears to have been put through a plate glass window on more than one occasion.

He appears to be the boyfriend of the particularly haughty looking girl Martin can see them holding hands in the reflection of his mirror.

Scruffy, entitled, and clueless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, Martin did think that Sirius was a girl.


	25. The Superior Egg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Really short on a bus.

The back seat of the bus is occupied by The Maurders, with the inclusion of Mary who sits on Peter's left next to the window.

They are out of their traditional order, which finds James in the middle with Peter and Remus on either side of him.

Sirius looks a good deal paler than usual, and is resting his heavy mud splattered boots on the back of Dorcus' seat.

Next to Dorcus is Lily who is kneeling on her seat as she takes a picture of James, Sirius and Remus over her head rest.

"Smile and say cauldron cakes."

James fixes Lily with his widest, cheesiest smile and slings one arm over Remus' rounded shoulders.

"Go on a date with me, Evans."

He grins up at her.

"In your dreams."

Is Lily's rather under par reply.

"Frequently."

James laughs waggling his eyebrows at him, causing her to turn her back on him with a mutter of disgust.

The giggles of Marlene and Clemency float up from somewhere further down the bus, and there's a snap as Lily takes a picture of Dorcus.

"Feet off the upholstery, love!"

The bus driver shouts from the front of the bus.

Although Sirius is the only person on the bus who actually has his feet up he ignores this direction until James leans across Remus with a delighted look on his face and tells him.

"He thinks that you're a girl."

Remus attempts to stifle a laugh, but fails miserably.

Sirius' grey eyes widen in horror.

"I am not a girl!"

He practically shrieks.

Which causes the laughter only to increase.

"Does some Muggle think that Padfoot is a girl again?"

Peter enquires leaning into James, a little late to the conversation.

Sirius' alabaster skin reddens, as he finally takes his feet off the upholstery.

"I've had enough of this, I'm going to tell him that I'm not a bloody girl!"

Sirius exclaims as he folds his arms tightly across his chest.

He looks the very image of a sulky, superior prince.

"Don't be so hasty,"

Remus points out.

"...the fact that he thinks you're a girl means that he won't mind me doing this."

And he leans across his seat at an extraordinarily awkward angle to plant a kiss on Sirius' petulant pout.

As pleased as he is to see his two best friends openly kissing again, James can't help but notice that on the other side of him that Peter and Mary are snogging away.

He sits there trapped between the sound of four different sets of lips slapping together.

What makes it worse is the fact that Lily is openly laughing at him.

How did this happen?

How did James Fleamont Potter, prankster extraordinaire, Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and all round superior egg, end up a 5th wheel?

How is it that Peter, PETER, has a girlfriend and yet he is still single?

Well he's had enough, and with a flounce his vacates his seat to sit next to an elderly Muggle man, who he doesn't realise smells of wee until he's actually sat down next to him.

Still he is happy for Sirius and Remus.


	26. Because Anne Bronte Deserves Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Insomnia is not my friend.

Despite their various seating arrangements when it is time to disembark the bus they do so in the following order:

Marlene.  
Dorcus.  
James.  
Lily.  
Mary.  
Sirius.  
Peter.  
Remus.  
And finally Clemency, who was in danger of getting stuck on the bus, and being driven into deepest, darkest Devon.

They stand at the bus stop and regard the village of Godric's Hollow, which is very pretty, but also fairly unremarkable.

There's a village green, a church, a pub and a collection of little shops clustered around a post office.

"Does anyone feel anything?"

James asks.

"Hungry."

Peter is the first to reply.

"Don't look at me, I'm a Hufflepuff."

Clemency grins.

"Is that a book shop?"

Remus ponders as he peers into the middle distance with interest at one of the shops.

"Oh Merlin Moony, surely you've read all of the books by now?"

Sirius rolls his eyes indulgently, as he reaches for Remus' hand.

"Actually, I'm feeling a little peckish myself."

Marlene's statement appears to settle things in the mind of the group as they decide to unpack the picnic that Mrs Macdonald made them, which is currently being concealed in the depths of Clemency's bag with the aid of an extendable charm.

While everyone else goes in one direction Sirius feels a tug on his hand as Remus moves in the opposite way.

"Come on Moony I'm hungry, the books will still be there after lunch. I don't trust Wormtail not to scoff the lot, while our backs are turned." 

In a sign of defeat, Remus' stomach gives a traitorous rumble.

"See even your gut agrees with me."

Sirius grins.

Remus gives up and let's himself be dragged in the direction of their friends who are already making camp under the shadow of a large oak tree.

He glances down at the outline of his stomach appraising it silently.

"I don't have a gut."

He says at last.

"Yes you do, you've got a gut and a spot on your chin, and you've really let yourself go since you dumped me."

Sirius throws his head back and gives a bark of laughter, but Remus doesn't find his statement particularly funny at all.

"Please pass my compliments along to your excellent Mother, Miss Macdonald, that was an exceptional spread."

James exclaims as he lazily tosses the remains of his chicken drumstick into the picnic basket.

"Here, here."

Sirius claps.

"I hope you are aware of how lucky you are Peter?"

Marlene says as she lifts her head up from where its resting on Clemency's lap.

The older girl smiles down at her in complete adoration, before shoving what's left of the apple she has been eating into Marlene's mouth.

Both girls giggle uncontrollably.

"Oh I really am."

Peter says as he kneels up to plant a kiss on Mary's blushing cheek.

"I'll let Mum know."

Mary's cheeks darken in colour.

Sirius glances over at Remus whose attention he can feel beginning to wane in favour of his favourite pastime perusing dusty book shelves.

"Oh go on then, I'll come with."

He says as he springs up onto his feet, pulling himself up to his full, impressive height.

"And where pray tell Mr Padfoot are you off to?"

James enquires with a smirk.

"Well you see Mr Moony here, wants to waste the day indoors staring at books he already owns, but with slightly different covers. I better go with him just in case he falls into another doxy nest."

"How selfless of you."

James chuckles.

"Hang on, Remus when did you fall into a doxy nest?"

Remus beats a hasty retreat before he has to answer Lily's question.

The bookshop, and it is a bookshop, is just as boring as Sirius knew that it would be.

Dull and boring and....oh a magazine on Muggle motorbikes.

He picks up the magazine intending to add it to his super secret collection of Muggle things, which he leaves out on open display in his bedroom at Grimmald Place to purposely enrage his parents.

His gaze slides to the direction of Remus who has his head buried in a battered book entitled The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

"What are you reading?"

Sirius asks with interest as he pops up next to Remus.

"A book."

Remus replies from over the top of said book.

"Are you going to buy it then?"

His perfectly sensible question is met with a heavy, exasperated sigh.

"Listen Padfoot if you want to leave then just go, I'll catch up later."

Later.

Sirius' already large eyes, widen to cartoon like proportions at this suggestion.

"No Moony, I want to stay with you."

He says sincerely.

Remus lowers his book, catches hold of Sirius by the front of his t-shirt and pulls him behind the book shelves.

"Watch the material, this is a Bowie original."

Sirius complains, although in truth he really doesn't mind being manhandled by Remus.

"I wanted to talk to you."

Remus says, letting him go.

Sirius smoothes down the front of his t-shirt.

"What have I done now?"

The slightly younger, slightly taller boy shakes his head emphatically.

"It's me I, earlier you said, I..."

But he fades off unable to finish the sentence.

"Merlin Moony, spit it out."

Sirius watches as a blush rises up Remus' neck.

"I don't know what to say, I'm not good with words."

Remus admits with a heavy sigh.

"Is it because of all the kissing?"

Sirius asks.

Mutely the other boy nods.

"I didn't dump you."

"You bloody well did!"

Sirius raises voice earns disapproving glances and a sssush from Remus.

He folds his arms across his chest, which is hard to do given the fact that he's still clutching his magazine tightly.

"I made a mistake. A horrible, terrible, unbearably stupid mistake, and I am so sorry. Would you, I mean do you want to, I understand if you don't,"

"Are you asking me if I want to be rubbish boyfriends again?"

Remus nods.

Sirius' answer is to fling his magazine to the floor and press Remus against the dusty bookshelves, while simultaneously shoving his tongue down the other boy's throat.

He's finally, finally mastered the art of kissing with tongues. 

Remus reciprocates the kiss by doing something interesting with his spotty chin, which causes Sirius to go a bit weak at the knees.

Twenty minutes later Mr Padfoot and Moony emerge from the bookshop one magazine and one book heavier, and with a row of love bites peppering their necks.

"I love Godric's Hollow."

Sirius observes with a wide smile.

I love you, Remus thinks to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They exit the bus in the order that they die...


	27. I Always Knew That You Were The Spawn of The Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Insomnia please release me...it's 4.15 in the UK.
> 
> Also featuring a Chruch.

Lily gazes up at the volted stone ceiling above her head, which is filled with a spray of hand carved stars.

This church, the church in Godric's Hollow is the prettiest that she has ever seen, not that judges the attractiveness of churches is ever that high up on her agenda.

"It's very pretty."

She muses as her green eyes move away from the ceiling.

"It's a bit too plain for my tastes, not enough gold, not enough insence, and certainly not enough guilt."

Marlene muses as she wanders through the pews.

"Ah yes, those good old fashioned catholic stereotypes."

Lily giggles at her friend.

"I can't help it, blame my parents, I do frequently."

Marlene shrugs, and sits down next to Dorcus who has her nose buried between the pages of a pamphlet on the history of St Jerome's Chruch.

"And they put the baby in here?"

Lily hears Clemency ask in a confused voice as she stands with Peter and Mary next to the font.

"Sort of, only they don't drown the baby. That would defeat the point."

Peter says.

"That's right, they wave it over the top."

Mary concludes.

And it is clear that as usual neither of them know what they are talking about.

Lily watches as the expression on Clemency's face turns from one of mild confusion to one of genuine concern.

Lily shifts her attention from the trio as Peter starts to speak again, wandering up the aisle, she comes to a stop next to James, who is bending over and reading an inscription in front of the alter.

At the sight of her his face splits into a wide grin and Lily feels a sinking sensation as she knows what is coming.

"I always knew I'd get you to the alter, Evans."

James says.

"That has to be one of the worst line that you have ever come up with."

Lily laughs in his face.

Despite this however she can't help but notice the way James looks at her, it'a the same way he always looks at her, and no-one else ever looks at her like that, and it's almost frightening, a mixture of outlandish desire and reverence, which causes her to feel nothing but out of her depth.

Her mouth feels very dry all of a sudden, and she quickly looks away staring down at the inscription that had so intrigued James.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death.

"It's a bit morbid."

He observes, wearing a rye smile that is anything but morbid.

Lily opens her mouth to speak, but whatever sentiment had been on the point of leaving her mouth is suddenly interrupted by the sound of something large and mental hitting centuries old flagstones.

They both turn to look in the direction of the commotion and see an extremely shame faced Remus standing next to Sirius who wears an expression of surprise, a heavy brass candlestick holder resting at his feet.

"I did nothing, I literally just stepped inside the building and it starts to disintegrate around me."

Sirius tries to explain.

"I always knew that you were the spawn of the Devil."

Remus groans from behind the hand that is covering his face.

Sirius is awoken from a particularly vivid dream featuring an army of sentient scarecrows, which he is in the process of outwitting using only a single quill.

"Padfoot."

He opens his eyes into the gloom of Remus' bedroom and finds James looming over him.

"I was sleeping."

He complains bitterly as he hoists himself up into a sitting position with his sleeping bag gathered around his waist.

"I can't be sure,"

James says, and Sirius can hear the laughter in his throat.

", but I think I may have inadvertently heard Moony's Mum and Dad shagging on my way back from the loo."

Sirius' eyes widen.

"I don't,"

He falters.

"I don't want to know. Why have you woken me up to share this information? Go and bother Wormtail."

James sits on the end of Sirius' sleeping bag.

"You are well aware that Wormy sleeps like the dead. And you're my best friend, you're more than that, you're my brother, if I have to suffer with the knowledge, so should you."

James always pulls the brother card when he's attempting to butter Sirius up, and it works ever time.

"I suppose it's nice in a 'I want to use this bottle of Muggle bleach on the inside of my scull' way'."

James exhales a whispered laugh.

"Why, are you always so dramatic?"

"I'm imaginative."

Sirius counters.

"I know that Moony's been worried about his parents getting a divorce. I suppose this means that they won't now."

Everything is that simple to Sirius Black.

"I 'spose."

James observes with a note of non committal.

"We're back together."

And his face feels as if it might split under the weight of his smile.

He has never been happier.

"That's brilliant mate, I sort of pegged it on the bus with all the smoochies, though."

"You are never going to find a girlfriend if you keep calling it smoochies."

"Smoochie, smoochie."

Both boys erupt into excitable giggles.

"You're both going to be as insufferable as before aren't you?"

James says with a sigh.

"Completely."

Sirius grins back at him through the gloom.

James then leans forward and plants a brief kiss on Sirius' sweaty forehead.

"I love you, mate."

Sirius pushes him away with a playful chuckle.

"Get off me you joey."

James yawns, gets up from Sirius' sleeping bag and carefully navigates the room to slide back into bed next to Remus, who is snoring loudly.

Sirius settles himself back against his pillow and tries to finish the rest of his dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my universe Marlene McKinnon is a Catholic.  
> Also learning that your in-laws still have sex poor Sirius.


	28. A Long Conversation About Socks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title says it all.  
> Here we are at the end of story number three, thank you to everyone who has left a comment, dropped kudos or simply read the thing.  
> I wish I was a bit more articulate, but thanks.  
> Also I'm dropping fic 4 today or tomorrow if anyone is interested.

Trying to get Sirius on his own is proving impossible.

Every time, every bloody time, Remus thinks he has managed to trap him in a room alone, James pops up, or Peter, or Mum and Dad.

He desperately needs to speak to Sirius and feels as if the Universe is conspiring against him.

But even if he does get him on his own what will he say?

I love you.

No, he does, but he can't he...he can't articulate how he feels about Sirius it's impossible.

Are you sure you want to be rubbish boyfriends again?

Won't that just sound like he's got cold feet?

He hasn't...

His feet are decidedly un-cold.

That's not a real word.

Remus feels the knot in his stomach tighten.

"You look bloody awful, Moony."

Sirius says as he casually strolls into the bedroom clutching a pair of socks in his hands.

It's an odd image, because Sirius shouldn't be domestic, not when he looks like some sort of enchanted marble statue brought to life, holding a pair of slightly smelly socks just throws everything off.

And then Remus realises that in Sirius' hands are a pair of his own slightly smelly socks.

"Why do you have my dirty socks?"

Remus' asks with a frown.

Sirius glances down at the offending items.

"Are these yours?"

Remus nods.

Sirius sniffs them.

"They smell alright to me."

He shrugs.

Yes, but that's only because both yours and James' feet absolutely stink, Remus thinks to himself.

He watches as Sirius settles himself on the edge of the bed and pulls one mustard coloured sock on after the other.

All the awkwardness melts once they are together, and Remus falls into the empty space on the bed next to him.

"Again, why my socks?"

"Oh, I need to borrow a pair so that Effie doesn't think I'm being neglected."

But you are being neglected, Remus thinks, but again doesn't speak.

"You don't own any socks?"

Remus begins to feel as if their conversation is stuck on a loop, but that's alright, he'd be happy to sit on this bed in this room discussing the subject of socks if any of it means that Sirius' shoulder will keep pressing into his own.

"No, my Mother forbade them, after I tried to give one to Kreacher, that bloody git. On the bright side, no-one else in The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, has any socks either, since my Mother doesn't believe in repeating the same mistake twice."

Remus rests his arm across Sirius' shoulders.

He may not have much, but at least he has parents who love him.

With socks on feet Sirius rests his head against the crook of Remus' neck.

And for the longest time they don't do anything they just sit and breathe and are together.

Their shadow becomes one black mass painted against the bedroom wall as if they have suddenly fused into one person.

Their fingers knot together.

"I'm not coming to see you off."

Remus says.

"Oh right."

Sirius moves his head from Remus' shoulder, while a look of disappointment flits over his features.

"You're not going to off to war, it's the Knightbus and The Potters."

Sirius' expression darkens as he mumbles something like 'wouldn't even care if I was going off to war', and Remus is left with absolutely no choice but to kiss him.

He captures Sirius lips.

Every time they kiss, every time, Remus experiences the same unbelievable rush.

The pace of his heartbeat quickens, and something like static electricity races up his spine.

It was never, ever like this when he had kissed Amy Floss.

As they part, breathlessly, Sirius rubs the tip of his nose against Remus'.

"We'll go together."

His voice sounds husky and thicker than usual as he speaks.

"Where?"

Sirius replies.

"To war. I'll go with you, I'll have to, who else is going to stop you from getting yourself accidentally killed."

They laugh. 

"I love you, you plum."

Sirius sighs.

"I know."

Remus grins back.


End file.
